David Trimble 1944-2022: Peer could have quietly retired but chose to keep fighting the Protocol and defending the Good Friday Agreement

He had ceased to be an MP in 2005 and entered the Lords the next year, sitting as a crossbench (ie, non-party) member for a short time before allying himself with the Tories.

But instead of coasting gradually into a life of quiet retirement, his final years saw him ramp up his public profile as part of unionist efforts to nullify the Protocol.

Back in 2018, when the “backstop” was still being touted as a solution to the UK’s post-Brexit headaches, and before the Protocol had been drawn up, Lord Trimble had written a foreword to a report by the influential study group Policy Exchange.

He said: “Twenty years ago, shortly after the Good Friday Agreement came into effect, I argued that what democratic politicians such as myself wanted in Northern Ireland was not some utopian society – that was for the few fanatics.

“What we wanted was something far more achievable: a normal society.

“This is the prize that’s since been enjoyed by a generation of young people, who have grown up free from the daily threat of violence that was experienced by all those who lived through the Troubles.

“This normalcy is a precious thing, which must be handled with care and defended with a quiet vigour.

“I worry now that it is in danger of being ripped apart.”

The reason, he wrote, was that “there is a genuine risk that Northern Ireland will end up as part of an effective EU protectorate, without the say-so of the Northern Ireland Assembly... this would be an appalling breach of the principle of consent”.

The following year Boris Johnson took the reins of the Tory party, and the Protocol was summoned into being.

The upshot? That Northern Ireland is treated essentially like it’s still in the EU, in the sense that merchandise arriving into Belfast or Larne from Great Britain is regarded as de facto foreign goods.

Lord Trimble continued to speak up, and was part of a landmark attempt to kill off the Protocol through the courts (with the other challengers being Jim Allister, Ben Habib, Arlene Foster, Steve Aiken, and Baroness Hoey).

They argued that, among other things, the 1800 Act of Union means “his majesty’s subjects of Ireland shall have same the privileges, and be on the same footing, as his majesty’s subjects of Great Britain” – on matters of trade especially.

The legal challenge failed, and in the course of throwing it out an appeal judge stated in March this year that “the terms of the Protocol take precedence” over the Act of Union; in other words, the Protocol has the effect of “subjugating” this key law that keeps Northern Ireland bound to Great Britain.

Cue another Policy Exchange report, and another foreword from Lord Trimble, published just last month.

In it, he said the Good Friday Agreement and its institutions are now “on life support” thanks to the Protocol.

It was a complex essay, rich with specific detail, in which Lord Trimble argued that the UK government is “involved in a test of wills with the EU which it cannot flunk” and urged the London government to show “some steel” when facing off against Brussels.

On June 21, Lord Trimble spoke to this paper to voice his annoyance at taoiseach Micheal Martin, who had just claimed Northern Ireland was “doing very well” under the Protocol.

“This diatribe, it’s not what one expects from him,” Lord Trimble said. “He’s let himself down badly.”

Though no-one knew it, this was to be one of his last interviews.

For more click here: First and last footage of David Trimble: Two clips of the unionist grandee speaking in the House of Lords, 14 years apart

For more click here: David Trimble 1944–2022: What the former Ulster Unionist leader’s political enemies and critics are saying about him following his death at age 77

One of the last interviews done with David Trimble, in June 2022: Trimble rounds on Micheal Martin saying he ‘let himself down very badly’ with his Protocol bill ‘diatribe’

For more click here: Sam ‘Skelly’ McCrory death: VIDEO – UDA leader claimed to be ‘gay icon’ who craved a world ‘without prejudism’