For years, Trimble was leader of the conservative UUP and campaigned for a peaceful reunification of Ireland. Along with Hume of the majority Catholic Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP), he helped negotiate the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of bloody Northern Ireland conflict.
Trimble was the first UUP leader in 30 years to meet with the then Irish Prime Minister in Dublin as part of the peace process. In 1998 he became Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin on Monday hailed Trimble's "decisive and courageous role" in the Good Friday Agreement negotiations.
