ireland, irish, ulster, ireland, irish, ulster, Sinn Fein, Irish America

(by Suzanne Breen, the News Letter)

He was a living saint. For decades John Hume was revered on the Irish and international stage.

From his civil rights days of ill-fitting suits and street politics to his later years as elder statesman and peace-maker, he was a god to many. Yet Hume's political career is ending very differently to how we would have expected.

The signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998 should have been his crowning glory. It was packed with Humespeak. It resembled his political thinking more than that of any other Northern Ireland politician.

He went on to win the Nobel peace prize but really it was all downhill for Hume and the SDLP from there. Sinn Féin stole the party's clothes but wore them in a far more alluring fashion.

Yesterday's tributes showed there is still considerable respect for Hume but St Gerry long ago replaced him in nationalist hearts at home and abroad.

Sinn Féin is set to totally dominate nationalist politics for decades - which isn't healthy for democracy. The SDLP will increasingly become the also-rans. The party seems incapable of mustering the policies or personalities to rescue it.

Sinn Féin is a dead cert to take the SDLP's European seat in June's election. Bairbe de Brun is a most lacklustre and unappealing candidate. But the swing away from the SDLP has been so massive that she would have ousted Hume even if he had stood.

Opting out of the race might be the wisest thing he ever did - and not just for medical reasons.

This article appears in the February 5, 2004 edition of the News Letter.