David Trimble funeral: Alliance MLAs didn’t need to be in the church - ‘we’re just here to pay our respects’

They said that given the amount of high-profile guests attending, they wanted to make sure there was enough room for friends and family of Lord Trimble inside the small church building.

Ms Eastwood said: “Myself and David are here as Lagan Valley reps. Obviously David [Trimble] spent a lot of his life here, he raised his family here, this is home for him.

“He certainly left his mark not just on Northern Ireland but this local community as well.”

Mr Honeyford said: “We both served with his son Nicholas on Lisburn council until May (when they became Assembly members).

“We’re both here to pay our respects and thank and celebrate the life of David Trimble for what he has done for our generation and for every generation.”

Ms Eastwood added: “We’re just here to pay our respects, we don’t need to be in the church, it’s important that there are people in there who really need to be in there.

“We’re here as part of the community. I think that’s the mark of the man that it isn’t just people who are in politics that are here today, it’s ordinary people and it’s those ordinary people who David Trimble worked so hard for to get peace.

“To think of what this place could have been without the work of David Trimble and John Hume and others is just unthinkable.

“Whenever you think about the sacrifice that they made it’s incredible.”

Mr Honeyford added: “I’ll never forget the night the agreement was signed, coming home as an 18- or 19-year-old at that time, my parents not believing that this had happened, that someone from the unionist community had taken that stand and had the backbone to move forward.

“It’s our generation and all our kids’ generations who should be thankful that he did.”