Unionists could honour David Trimble by restoring power-sharing

Despite all the tributes given to David Trimble on his passing, the irony of failed devolution overshadows it all unfortunately.

What an incredible irony it also is that the same week Stormont was to try and elect a speaker for the second time, one of the architects of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement left us.

The GFA/BA was brokered in 1998 which is almost a quarter of a century ago and here we are in 2022 and it is still not operational.

Undoubtedly, the agreement set up new channels of communication between unionists and nationalists which were not there previously and Lord Trimble helped to create those links to his credit.

Dialogue was established and still is.

However, getting agreement on big issues is as tough as ever.

The devolutionary agreement failed to take into account the situation we now find ourselves where one main party fails to nominate a speaker, resulting in Stormont lying in mothballs for an indefinite period of time.

However, notwithstanding the impasse over Protocol, there is actually no reason why power-sharing at Stormont cannot be restored to deal with the bread and butter issues and the soaring cost of living facing Northern Ireland — and still maintain their opposition to the Protocol, is there?

The agreement and power-sharing is still salvageable but the more time which goes by, the harder it gets to lift it off the sea bed.

David Trimble has left us, the question is whether the devolutionary agreement he brokered with others will pass into history with him, or will unionists honour his legacy and efforts by restoring power-sharing?

Maurice Fitzgerald, Shanbally, Co Cork