Rise and fall of a peacemaker

The former Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, risked his political life in a bold leap for peace in Northern Ireland.

As a new BBC documentary talks to some of the key players who have supported - and opposed - him, Vincent Kearney, the BBC's NI home affairs correspondent and associate producer on the film, looks at what motivated Mr Trimble.

David Trimble was seen as an unlikely peacemaker

David Trimble was an unlikely peacemaker.

When he swept to victory to take the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party in 1995, it was precisely because he was viewed as a hardliner, a man who would stand up to republicans rather than sit down with them.

There were audible groans of exasperation in nationalist and Irish government circles when Mr Trimble was elected.

They viewed it as a set-back to efforts to find a political settlement to end more than 30 years of violence.

But Mr Trimble confounded his nationalist critics and outraged many of his supporters by taking his party into talks with Sinn Fein, a party they said was inseparable from the IRA.

That in itself was an enormous risk.

Prime Minister Tony Blair pays tribute to him in the documentary: "For David to enter talks with Sinn Fein, now seems quite a minimal move, but at the time it was an extraordinary and fundamentally important change."

But Mr Trimble, now 61, went much further. He supported the Good Friday Agreement and entered a power-sharing government with republicans.

Why? What drove David Trimble?

David is a buttoned-up sort of person. He wouldn't find it easy to express emotions in words Daphne Trimble

A former law lecturer, he has unshakable belief in his own ability.

He was convinced that he was the best man to deal with republicans in negotiations about the future of Northern Ireland because he was confident he could secure unionist victory.

"That agreement is the best agreement that unionists have ever had," he declares.

But Mr Trimble today is a lonely figure. By his own admission, he is bored.

A man who shared the stage with presidents and prime ministers, and was the de facto prime minister of Northern Ireland, is in the political wilderness, awaiting his elevation to the House of Lords.

Many believe he was the author of his own destruction, a victim of his own personality.

Mr Trimble is a man who struggles with emotion.

As his wife, Daphne, puts it in the programme: "David is a buttoned-up sort of person. He wouldn't find it easy to express emotions in words."

Critics argue that the lack of emotion and personal skills made it difficult for him to grasp the extent of the trauma unionists were feeling as a result of the agreement, which saw terrorist prisoners released from jail and the Royal Ulster Constabulary, viewed by unionists as their defenders against the IRA throughout the Troubles, renamed and radically reformed.

His critics also say Mr Trimble was too willing to compromise.

On numerous occasions he would set a deadline for the IRA to decommission its weapons as the price for entering government with Sinn Fein, but then give them more time.

Again, Mr Trimble insists he was right.

He points to the fact that last July the IRA declared that its campaign of violence was over, and it has carried out what is regarded as a major act of decommissioning.

But even some of those who supported him throughout the talks disagree with his tactics.

Tactics

John Taylor, now Lord Kilclooney, was the deputy leader of the Ulster Unionists from 1995 until 2001.

He offers this assessment: "I think David was prepared to jump too often."

If Sinn Fein and the IRA let David Trimble down by failing to honour commitments to decommission weapons, many of his supporters and critics believe that he also placed too much trust in Tony Blair.

It is clear that Mr Trimble himself believes the prime minister shoulders some of the blame.

Mr Trimble says Gerry Adams suggested they get better acquainted

When asked whether he was deceived by Downing Street, he replies: "You might say that, I couldn't possibly comment."

The film also has some fascinating personal insights.

Mr Trimble recalls a suggestion by Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, that they should get to know each other a bit better.

"He developed this theme to the point where it was even suggested we go away at weekends together, at which point (my) mind was certainly boggling," he says.

"I listened to this being said, at great length, and then leaned over towards Mr McGuinness and I said: 'You know Martin, just because you get to know someone better it doesn't mean you like them any more'."

There are also insights into Mr Trimble's infamous temper, from which not even prime ministers were spared.

Tony Blair says: "I don't think even David's closest friends would say he's always easy to deal with, he isn't. He can be extremely, well, feisty is perhaps the politest way of putting it."

Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister, puts it in starker terms: "David was not the sort of guy who would sit there, holding the temper inside himself. He did what is probably correct to do - he let fly."

David Trimble: Out in the Cold was broadcast on Tuesday 11 April 2006 on BBC Two