Edward M. Kennedy: “it was 25 years ago today that John Hume won his first election in Northern Ireland. Many of us in Congress who have…”

“it was 25 years ago today that John Hume won his first election in Northern Ireland. Many of us in Congress who have come to know John well throughout the years know him to be an extraordinary man of peace. I have great admiration for his achievements and his leadership, and I congratulate him on his 25th anniversary in public service. On February 24, 1969, John was elected to the Northern Ireland parliament. In the years since then, he has also been elected to the European Parliament and the British Parliament. Throughout the long and difficult years of civil strife and turmoil in Northern Ireland, John Hume has dedicated his life to achieving a peaceful, just and lasting settlement of the conflict. As the founder and leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland, he has demonstrated time and again the success and wisdom of peaceful negotiations and institution-building between Protestants and Catholics as the only acceptable method of achieving a solution of the crisis in his native land. He is one of the greatest apostles of nonviolence of our time.”