Belfast Agreement at 25: David McNarry - It was an honour to serve in the Trimble team back in 1998

But when I think back to 1998, and our party’s role in the agreement, I think first of how the Ulster Unionist Party was always a powerful amalgamation. ​Diverse characters, big house grandees, farmers, middle and working class and typical of the wider unionist community.

Its structure under the Ulster Unionist Council was the underlining strength of an effective electoral machine. It comprised the constituency associations, the Women’s Council, the Young Unionists, the Orange Order, Unionist-Labour Associations and affiliation with the Conservative Party.

Following the James Molyneaux era of safe hands (1979 to 1995) the party was ill prepared for what was waiting in the wings, sending it into a state of flux and division.

The UUP did not welcome change or challenges. Much continues to be written about the Trimble era (David Trimble led the party from 1995 to 2005), an era which was tasked to deal with change and challenges. For many post Molyneaux, those challenges caused them to take sides, to lose good friends and to this day wonder what was the right thing to do in the run-up to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, and after it.

The circumstances confronting unionism 25 years ago, and which remain persistent today, thrust unionism into a whirlwind of conspiratorial uncertainty. We were trying to conduct politics amidst the recently ended Provo war of attrition, which threatened society, the status quo and unionists in particular.

The very concept of political power sharing was always going to be an exceptionally hard sell. A champion was found in one unique thinker, a leader with dogged determination ... David Trimble.

It took exceptional men and women who wanted good riddance of terrorism to awaken and talk. People like John Hume and Seamus Mallon who previously ploughed the furrows of ’50 years of unionist miss-rule’ – constitutional nationalists who bought into the prospect of Trimble’s inspirational vision succeeding.

Adversaries whom most unionists did not trust and with whom they had little common ground jointly focused their agenda of an enduring peace. Their frankness, along with Trimble’s endeavours, convinced many like me (‘contradictory hardline moderates’) to believe this could work. But not even the super optimistic dared to predict Trimble and Mallon in the First and Deputy First Minister’s offices. Could anyone have imagined their replacements being the ‘Chuckle Brothers’ Paisley and McGuinness?

The party split in 1998 both over policies and over David Trimble’s leadership. David did not abandon his stance on ‘no guns, no government’. That was enough for me to stick by him and be with him as a UUP MLA in his internal party battles. None of which were edifying, most turned nasty and to this day leave a bad taste.

From where I was watching, Trimble was being forced into a corner of reverse gear by the likes of Willie Ross, Martin Smyth, Jeffrey Donaldson, David Burnside and those previously his best friends and confidants. They were attempting to push him into being a political gladiator in an arena of internal party combat. He needed and appreciated a praetorian guard.

Going into meetings where friends turned into foes, with things said and accusations made which were not retracted in the atmosphere of a bear pit rumpus. These skirmishes have not been forgotten by many who bore the brunt of unfriendly fire on both sides.

When Trimble moved against ‘friends’ Smyth, Donaldson, Burnside, Arlene Foster, Peter Weir, it was because they had deserted him and exhausted his patience. He did this while steadfastly resisting the pressure from close allies to boot out Jeffrey especially.

Once he got his ducks in a row, Trimble was negotiating with everyone, party colleagues, the prime minister, the Irish and republicans strictly on his terms. No trench digging, no fudge. It would be formidable and passionate leadership. Unionism would never be the same.

Ironically, I am sure that Jeffrey Donaldson more than most will appreciate the apprenticeship he served in the maelstrom of UUP upheaval. The similarities to where he finds himself today within the DUP and what David Trimble contended with then in the UUP are such that Jeffrey is well prepared for what is to come!

It was a huge privilege to have played a small part in formulating Northern Ireland’s future for the better in 1998. Against strong odds it must be said. On the day of the agreement referendum result I recall vividly wiping tears of relief and exhilaration, thinking inwardly ‘blooming marvellous’ how did he (Trimble) pull it off?

So how has it all unravelled? How come that when the hard line unionist and the hard nosed nationalist, then the poacher-come-gamekeeper and the provo-turned-peacemaker, could and did make the agreement work, yet today Stormont is mothballed and not working?

Unionists look no further than at Sinn Fein’s calculated change of emphasis, constantly agitating to destroy the Union and erase the agreement’s binding consent principle. Seeing nationalists willingly flocking to Mary Lou McDonald’s republican leadership is a kick in the teeth for ordinary unionists.

The agreement is not to blame for the collapse of power sharing or the imposition of the pernicious protocol/framework but it is under dangerous threat.

Presidents and first ladies do not visit often enough to enjoy our welcome and our unpretentious hospitality. But President Biden should not just wallow in his Irish ancestry and bank film footage for his forthcoming election campaign. Unionists matter too! Ulster Scots Irish Americans resile from the president lecturing unionists for their rejection of EU gross interference in Northern Ireland.

On April 10, I will quietly and fondly remember discussions with Seamus Mallon, a smoker like myself who never blew smoke in my face. I will recall the kind prayerful guidance of Archbishop Robin Eames and recount the tenacity of Ken Maginnis and John Taylor. It was an honour to serve in the Trimble team.

I will also smile thinking back to seeing the Woman’s Coalition politically flirting with loyalists. That was something else!

Most of all I will toast the memory of the man without whom we could not have contemplated anything approaching devolution … David Trimble.