London's political establishment hailed this authoritative biography of David Trimble. The bookish boy from Bangor who became a Nobel Peace Prize winning statesman. Such respect for Trimble would have been utterly unimaginable when he emerged to lead Unionism in 1995. He was then widely damned as a red-faced extremist.
This bumper biography by Daily Telegraph writer Dean Godson means we know much more about Trimble and his times.
Godson describes a terribly serious boy from a respectable lower middle class Presbyterian family. A pencil-thin Buddy Holly look-alike who became a corporal in the Air Training Cadets and then a junior clerk. He was destined for comparative anonymity and racked by shyness. His wife, Daphne, says that even now "he can be quite happy spending the evening at home reading, without exchanging a word with anybody in the family." Himself Alone, indeed. Almost tragically alone because he nearly killed Daphne when cleaning his gun and it fired a shot which missed her by an inch.
But Trimble altered his life, and eventually that of unionism and Northern Ireland, by winning a first at Queen's and a lectureship in land law. He was never a bigot and believed from the 60s that Ian Paisley was a crank. But he joined the Orange Order and William Craig's Vanguard Party. He produced the daily strike bulletin in the Ulster Workers' strike and his phone was tapped. His phone was also monitored during the Belfast Agreement negotiations. He used this to convey messages of unionist unity to ministers.
Trimble's "Orange cred" certainly gave him the edge over a liberal like Ken Maginnis who couldn't persuade unionists to go as far as Trimble could. From the off, Trimble wanted unionists to think and act politically. No more flag-waving and futile protest politics. The Trimble Project aimed to modernise a partially lobotomised and antiquated party. He wanted to scrap its ideological taboos and "go anywhere and speak to anyone." He aimed to motivate and mobilise non-voting middle class unionists. He played his cards close to his chest and boxed clever. Critic Jeffrey Donaldson complains that people listened to the volume but not the content of Trimble's statements.
Godson navigates the detail of the nerve-racking white-knuckle ride of the peace process. Funnily enough, the best description of the most difficult job in British politics comes from Gerry Adams. "Trimble has the really difficult task, of making some sort of relationship with your neighbours. To do that, you have to do the hardest thing of all - to negotiate with your own side. In his own way, David did it. The easy job is Paisley's job."
Trimble led the biggest party in the smallest part of the UK. But Paisley and his own hard-liners dogged his every step. He also faced a Labour Government with a massive majority and historical support for Irish nationalism although Blair shifted his party to neutrality. Blair was also keen to stop Provo bombs, shore up Sinn Féin's leaders and co-operate with Dublin and the Americans. With everybody trying to avoid being blamed and shamed by the media and public opinion. The peace process is like changing a tyre, blindfolded in a whirlwind.
Individual personalities count for much in such frenetic bargaining. Blair says that Trimble is "always completely blunt." Trimble despised Adams' "sleekedness" and moral cowardice unlike the "more straightforward" Martin McGuinness. Trimble emerges as a complex thinker with sometimes quirky views. He could have been a Labour minister but was once tipped as a possible Tory leader. He draws inspiration from unexpected sources. A colourful cast of characters who backed the Trimble project. They include a repentant Provo, many Catholic writers and politicians, and left-wingers (with me playing a bit part).
It is a tribute to Trimble's bravery, or foolishness, that he asked a critic of the peace process to write this book. No other party leader would reveal the record in this way. Trimble has "a few wee quibbles." Supporters and opponents will both find ammunition in this hefty tome.
It took five years to research during which Trimble survived constant leadership challenges but it has farewell written all over it. Trimble himself jokes that he feels like a corpse being dissected. This warts and all book forensically examines his mistakes, miscalculations and triumphs.
But he won the consent principle for unionists and resisted ambitious north-south bodies. His hard-bargaining also helped jolt the IRA into decommissioning which Adams told him couldn't be done. Trimble persuaded his party to reform the "cold house" that Northern Ireland was for nationalists and build a "pluralist parliament for a pluralist people." But "the Prod in the garden" didn't respond and Paisley overtook him, like Sinn Féin eclipsed the SDLP.
Whether this book records history or marks progress, Trimble emerges as an intelligent and tenacious figure who helped break the mould and secure the peace against the odds. Your judgement on this book and Trimble's career will be coloured by whether you believe in green lobsters or orange frogs. The book quotes one source who says that the peace process was about luring the lobsters, in this case the republican movement, into the lobster pots. Another source says that the unionists are like frogs. If you put them in boiling water they will immediately jump out but if you place them in cold water and then gradually raise the temperature, you will succeed. The fate of the lobsters and frogs will only become clear with time.
