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David Trimble, the first former Northern Ireland minister who helped end decades of violence, died at the age of 77.
The Ulster Unionist Party, led by Trimble from 1995 to 2005, said in a statement that unionist politicians died “after a short illness” on Monday.
Trimble contributed to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which ended a 30-year fierce conflict in Northern Ireland known as “The Troubles.”
UUP was the largest Protestant union party in Northern Ireland when it agreed to a Good Friday peace agreement led by Trimble.
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Trimble was a hard-line union member when he was young, but his compromise efforts have become a politician who has become crucial in attracting union members and nationalists to the new power-sharing government of Northern Ireland.
Trimble shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with John Hume, the leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party, a moderate Catholic leader.
Trimble lost a seat in the British Parliament in 2005 and lost a seat shortly after resigning as leader. The following year he was appointed to the House of Lords of the Senate. Since then, Northern Ireland’s power-sharing has experienced many crises, but peace agreements have largely endured.
“The Good Friday Agreement was something that everyone in Northern Ireland could agree on,” Trimble said earlier this year. “That doesn’t mean they agree with everything. There are some aspects that some people thought were wrong, but the basic thing is that they agreed.”
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Trimble is survived by his wife Daphne and his children Richard, Victoria, Nicholas and Sarah.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.