Speech by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the Lord David Trimble Lecture 2026 In Queen’s University Belfast, 7 May 2026

Thank you, Paul [Professor Lord Paul Bew] and Ian [Professor Sir Ian Greer]. Thanks also to Daphne Trimble and to her and David’s children.

Go raibh maith agaibh go léir. Tá an-áthas orm a bheith anseo i mBéal Feirste agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil as ucht an cuireadh.

As we look back on Irish and British history over the last sixty years, there is absolutely no doubt that David Trimble is a figure of great significance.

I would argue that he is also a figure who we should do more to remember and understand.

Irrespective of the tradition you feel connected to, or indeed if you feel no connection to any, there is much to be learned from his passionate, committed and consequential life.

More than all but a handful of other major political figures in Northern Ireland, he sought to both represent his community and to respond to the need to find some way forward.

He was both highly traditional and capable of often remarkable evolution. He was a man of sincere belief, who at the toughest of moments showed a level of personal and political bravery which was underappreciated at the time and should not be allowed to be forgotten.

The greatest respect which we can pay to an important figure such as David is to recognise the importance of his life by engaging with its substance.

That is what I would like to do today.

For those of us who come from a nationalist and republican background, it has taken us time to find ways of relating to the culture and beliefs of the Northern unionist, loyalist and Orange communities.

This has been a problem for hundreds of years but became even more significant following Partition as we rapidly shared fewer laws, practices and institutions.

Even a basic look at our histories shows how often this new separateness developed into a caricatured opinion of each other.

Thankfully, a generation of political leaders decided that engagement was essential if anything were to improve. It was through this engagement that first perceptions and then policies began to change.

I vividly remember how often Bertie Ahern told our front bench and then the Cabinet that whenever he met David Trimble, he got a sense of a man who was a unionist to his very foundations – and also a man who wanted the place he loved to call home to find a way forward.

His decision not only to negotiate an historic peace settlement, but to use every ounce of his political capital to win support for it, was always going to be extremely challenging, but he believed it was the right thing to do.

He was also right in feeling that things would have been better if this were an approach embraced by all.

David Trimble and Queen’s University Belfast

It is fitting that this lecture is taking place in Queen's. In these same halls, David was both a gifted student and a dedicated lecturer, and later, an honorary Professor.

His presence is still very much alive today through his powerful stare captured in Colin Davidson’s wonderful portrait of him.

David is remembered for his meticulously prepared lectures on the arguably arid topic of land law and equity.

And while many of his students could be forgiven for forgetting some of the details of that subject, I am told that few forget David’s dedication to it.

As many of you are aware, if David felt it was his duty to do something, he would do it.

During his years in Queen's, a number of his students were arrested and imprisoned in Long Kesh. For David, nothing should stand in the way of a solid education, and he routinely travelled from Queen’s to Long Kesh to discuss the ins and outs of land law and equity.

He even secured a study space. As Stephen Walker in Peacemaker, his recent biography of David, puts it:

“Trimble’s politics could not have been more different from many of the students he was reaching out to help. As an Orangeman and a unionist, he was assisting people who were suspected of trying to destroy the state he believed in. For Trimble, it was simply part of his job, and his personal views remain just that – personal.”

It is rare to find such dedication in any profession.

The murder of his friend and colleague Edgar Graham by the Provisional IRA was a pure sectarian act which shocked David deeply.

In reflecting on this, how others reacted, and the reality of where we are today, I am reminded of the words of Liam de Roiste, one of the important Cork political figures from the decade after the Easter Rising who I studied as a graduate student.

De Roiste’s diary records his dismay at growing violence and division, with him saying “both sides [are] silent when the murder is committed by their own supporters.”

It is not possible for any person to be serious about reconciliation without acknowledging the deep and lasting damage caused by the actions of your own side.

David Trimble and the peace process

David’s journey to the Good Friday Agreement was a complex one.

During the Sunningdale negotiations, he was a member of the Vanguard party and gained a reputation as a hard-line protester that opposed the power sharing. In some ways, he never lost that edge to his politics.

In his Nobel Peace Prize lecture, David spoke of the Dublin-born writer and thinker Edmund Burke as a model for what he called ‘politicians of the possible.’

The reference is telling. David looked to Burke, a representative of an Anglo-Irish tradition, as a role model of the ‘pluralist Irishman.’

There are many, particularly in London, who wrongly celebrate Burke as a hero of conservatism.

It is true that he was one of the most eloquent defenders of the Westminster constitutional approach and of the monarchy. He provided the first and most important non-reactionary riposte to the French Revolution.

He supported constitutional innovation in Dublin, sought recognition of the political rights of Catholics and Presbyterians and led a dramatic investigation into imperial abuses in India.

There is no doubt that Burke was conservative in the context of the radicalism of his times – but he was far from inflexible.

David was also a politician of the possible.

The release of prisoners, reform of policing, and the role of the Government of Ireland in North-South bodies presented often profound and always difficult hurdles for him and his party on the path to peace.

What made him different was that he also saw what could become possible through reaching an agreement.

And ultimately, he had the credentials and the heft to bring his party with him.

Throughout the negotiations, David displayed a capacity for building new relationships while working to maintain trust among different strands in his own core constituencies.

Repeatedly this involved facing deep criticism from them. This required real character and perseverance.

These new relationships of trust included relationships with constitutional nationalists, both north and south of the border, which to many seemed inconceivable if we recall the uncertain fraught days of the Ulster Workers Council strike or the protests that followed the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

It is worth remembering the still difficult backdrop to negotiations in 1998.

The ceasefires largely held, but there was still violence. Just weeks before the Agreement was concluded, there was the horrific murder of two friends, Damien Trainor and Philip Allen, one Catholic and one Protestant, as they sat together in a pub in Poyntzpass.

By chance, another great architect of the Agreement, Seamus Mallon, arrived to pay his respects at the same time as David.

Seamus suggested that they should walk together through the village. Despite attempts by his security officers to usher him into his car, David agreed.

Few of us will forget the striking image of David and Seamus standing together in Poyntzpass.

Damien Trainor and Philip Allen represented a Northern Ireland that went beyond sectarian divides. And Mallon and Trimble, in that moment, presented an unprecedented symbol of political unity at a time when Northern Ireland needed it most.

It reflected the clear majority of the people of Northern Ireland. Enough was enough.

This image is said to have sparked the idea of a joint office leading the Stormont Executive and David, of course, would subsequently become First Minister in that joint office.

As David once put it, “The Good Friday Agreement is something which everyone has been able to agree with. It doesn’t mean they agree with everything”

I don’t think there is any great purpose served by going over the number of lost opportunities in the early years after the Agreement, as the two parties most responsible for the Agreement dealt with the reality of others who did not share their sense of urgency.

I think there is no doubt that the spirit and enthusiasm for the new beginning of 1998 was weakened in ways which have at best delayed the ability to maximise and share the benefits of peace and search for prosperity.

The Agreement, and its principles and purpose, remain central to what my government does and how we foster relationships across these islands.

At its core remains a challenge which will never be easy – and that is to respect the interests of others.

To work together in a way which does not reduce every issue to a partisan or sectarian interpretation is the essence of the demand made of all of us by the people of both parts of this island in free and inclusive referendums.

Moving beyond talking about problems into the much harder work of delivering solutions should be our only agenda.

How much more can we achieve when we work to understand each other better?

When we work together. When we look for the interests, we share before the opinions which divide us.

Seán Lemass was about as pure of a true Irish republican as you could find. He fought in the GPO in 1916. He opposed the Treaty, and his political life was dedicated to the practical assertion of sovereignty.

Yet from very soon after the foundation of Fianna Fáil, he argued that engagement with Northern Ireland was the only credible way forward, irrespective of your opinion on constitutional matters.

When talking about his core policy as Taoiseach, he said, “When people begin to work together, it’s a habit which will grow.”

I could not agree more with this sentiment.

Shared Island Initiative

From my first days as Taoiseach, I have been clear that I accept that my government must show a more serious, sustained and comprehensive interest in fulfilling the potential for peace, prosperity and reconciliation.

There are many dimensions of this, but one is of course, the Shared Island Initiative.

The Initiative is underpinned by the principles, institutions and commitments of the Good Friday Agreement and is about working in every practical way to take up the opportunities it provides.

This is backed with major resourcing through our Shared Island Fund ‒ now a €2 billion commitment out to 2035.

Today sees the publication of the 2025 Annual Report on the implementation of the Shared Island Initiative.

The report illustrates how we are working to build a more connected, sustainable and prosperous island for all.

We have forged ahead with landmark cross-border infrastructure projects to better connect people and places.

We are also resourcing the hourly-frequency train service between Dublin and Belfast, which has seen a 40% increase in passenger numbers in its first year of operation. Transforming economic and social connectivity for people all along the Dublin-Belfast corridor.

Both Administrations are also working together to take forward the vision of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review through the Rail Prioritisation Strategy.

We are also working to maximise the benefits of the all-island economy, with cross-border trade now valued at a record €17 billion a year.

We are enabling world-class research and commercialisation work by institutions across this island, and with partners in Great Britain and the United States.

Queen’s University has been playing a leading role in these programmes. Demonstrating the massive benefit of developing our research sector collaboratively ‒ with strong North/South, East/West, European and international dimensions.

I warmly welcome that Queen’s University and University College Cork have today announced the commencement of their “PD Life” project, supported with €4 million through our North South Research Programme, to create an all-island Parkinson’s Disease research hub to improve quality of life for people with Parkinson’s.

World-class researchers on both sides of the Border helping tackle the impact of a disease which impacts on over 20,000 families on this island without regard for politics or religion.

Queen’s University is also co-leading two more of the latest North-South Research Programme projects: LIFELANGS with Trinity College Dublin to create a centre to study the languages and identities of this island; and CyberUnite with the University of Limerick to enhance cyber-resilience for critical infrastructure, North and South.

I also welcome the initiative being taken forward to establish the first all-island university group between Dundalk IT and Queen’s.

My Government’s Shared Island Research Programme is also developing, with over 40 publications to date, working with the Economic and Social Research Institute and other partners.

The goal is to provide a stronger evidence base and analysis of the whole island in economic, social, cultural, and political domains.

What are the problems we share and can work together on – and where do we need to understand differences.

There’s nothing abstract about this – it’s a step away from people making assumptions about each other and towards understanding each other.

Research has already informed, for instance, the introduction of the Executive of a major Shared Island Education cooperation programme to raise school completion and attainment levels.

A report published last month represented the first examination of disability rates across the island of Ireland.

Inclusive dialogue with all communities and political traditions on how we share the island also remains central to the Initiative.

I want to recall David Trimble’s words in 1999, when he said, “pluralism and inclusion are the principles at the heart of what we created last Good Friday”.

These principles are also crucial in working for a shared, reconciled future. Demanding that we do more than just acknowledge our plurality of traditions. We need to work in purposeful, sustained ways to deepen connections and mutual understanding between communities.

This does not solely mean communities in Northern Ireland. The promise, and duty, and hope of the Good Friday Agreement is for reconciliation of people across the island of Ireland.

Research shows that people South of the Border have nowhere near the level of engagement with the North that previous generations had. We are all the poorer for this.

Shared Home Place

That is why I launched the Shared Home Place programme.

It is a dialogue programme inviting people from across all communities and traditions on this island, and beyond in the diaspora, to explore what a Shared Home Place means to them - past, present and future.

I have said before that Irishness, in all its variety, does not stop at the border, or even at the island’s edge, nor does Britishness in all of its various aspects.

The Shared Home Place programme is a chance for dialogue, a chance for people to engage with the contributions of all the traditions on this island, Irish, Anglo-Irish, British, Ulster-Scots, and to recognise too the even greater diversity of the island today.

In exploring our roots, our heritage, our sense of place and home, we have the chance to understand ourselves a little better. To allow the complexities of all our stories to emerge.

To understand our neighbours a little better and to talk together, about what kind of a home place we want to live in and want to hand to those who will in time, call this island home.

By its nature, none of this work is short-term. We are committed to a sustained focus and priority on the goals of our Shared Island Initiative.

I know that there are some who claim that this work is a distraction – that what we really need is a focus on advocacy.

But to them I would say that advocacy which dismisses the need for deep and true understanding leads nowhere. It delivers nothing positive.

I find the idea that reconciliation is not urgent to be almost a rejection of the very principles of the Agreement – and ignoring of a complex and challenging vision for the future.

Without reservation or apology, I and my government will work every day for reconciliation of the different traditions of this island – and the engagement and understanding which are a precondition for this.

Visit to Belfast

In relation to recent events, the recent reckless car bomb attack outside Dunmurry PSNI Station is a stark reminder of the need for continued leadership.

We must all stand up for constitutional politics and reconciliation and must be determined in the face of rump-paramilitarism and criminality, and continue to assert the primacy of parliamentary democracy.

While it is important to acknowledge this, I want to be clear also that the transformative effects of the Good Friday Agreement were what was most evident throughout my visit to Belfast today.

My meetings with Northern Ireland party leaders in Parliament Buildings covered a wide array of shared views and, of course, differences of opinion – some old, some new.

I witnessed a very literal example of better connections in Grand Central Station earlier today when I was joined by the First and deputy First Ministers for the signing of a contract by Ministers O’Brien and Kimmins for an almost €700m investment for the delivery of eight state-of-the-art intercity trains and associated infrastructure for the route, supported through the EU PEACEPLUS programme.

And also, today, when I met with the staff and service users from Women’s Aid. Tackling Gender-Based Violence is a major concern for both jurisdictions, and one where an island-wide lens and cooperative approaches can enhance our responses in government and wider society.

Of course, even when working together, there are factors beyond our control. We are all affected by the geopolitical uncertainties – impacting on our economies and our security.

During my meeting with Northern Ireland business leaders this morning, I was assured to see that, come what may, businesses will continue to build a more prosperous tomorrow here in Northern Ireland and across the island of Ireland.

Tomorrow, I will attend the thirty-first Plenary Meeting of the North South Ministerial Council, hosted by the Northern Ireland Executive.

This is the fifth such meeting since the restoration of the Good Friday Agreement institutions in 2024 and I look forward to continuing our positive discussions of shared challenges and opportunities.

The success of the NSMC is not the product of chance. As David put it, “It shows that in the Agreement we got the architecture right and people can see the procedures. There is transparency and accountability.”

The British-Irish partnership is also closer and more productive than it has been for some time.

In March, I was pleased to host Prime Minister Starmer and a number of his Cabinet colleagues for the second UK-Ireland Summit in Cork.

Our Joint Statement to 2030 reiterates the importance of our role as co‑guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement – the cornerstone underpinning peace, prosperity, and partnership across these islands.

This partnership can and should deliver for Northern Ireland. Agreeing the Joint Framework on Legacy last September was a significant moment in reconciliation across these islands. The focus now is, rightly, on implementation.

Conclusion

Since 2023, there has been a bronze bust of David in Leinster House. As I pass, I often take a moment to reflect on his legacy and especially his affinity with ‘politicians of the possible’, who in David’s words, 'seek to make a working peace, not in some perfect world, that never was, but in this flawed world, which is our only workshop’.

David Trimble delivered on that.

When it counted, under pressure, under fire from critics within and without, he showed true leadership.

He did not seek perfection, but rather he took a difficult decision to accept a principled compromise that he knew would cause degrees of hurt within his own party and community.

And there were times, I know, when the unionist communities that David Trimble represented felt that the Government of Ireland could have done more.

Times when it felt that the Irish Government recognised unionism’s pain but did not fully empathise with it; times when we frustrated each other, seemed to be just talking at each other, past each other, because we were starting from such different places in our sense of history, our hopes and fears and our issues of concern.

That is something for us to acknowledge and to continue to reflect on.

And each of us should do so without immediately reaching for those old reliable words: “but what about…?” ‒ “What about our grievance?” “What about this other injustice?”

Our aim should not be to re-litigate old arguments, nor should we dismiss the complex hurt that runs through all communities.

Again, to paraphrase David, we can only start from where we actually are, not from some other place where we would like to be. But we have started, and we will go on.

There must be room for these discussions and acknowledgements, grounded in historical fact and scholarship, and grounded too in tolerance, mutual trust and reconciliation.

The Government of Ireland, along with others, must be open to playing our part in that work in good faith.

Let us strive not to just talk at each other again. Let us commit to having a genuine conversation.

And, while making space for our shared past, let us put the overwhelming focus where it should be ‒ building up relationships, partnerships and progress now in this moment and for this generation and into the future – which, no matter what the constitutional arrangements on this island shall be within any timeframe, in all circumstances, will be a shared future.

Go raibh maith agaibh.