Three fine products of Derry - "stroke city" for BBC Radio Ulster in days when many felt obliged to refer to it as Londonderry/Derry - were present in St Eugene's Cathedral for a momentous event on Wednesday.
Two were living and one, John Hume, a key architect of what Mo Mowlam, when Northern Ireland Secretary, called the "flawed peace", had just died aged 83. It was his funeral, with the number of mourners much smaller than the thousands who would have gathered but for Covid-19.
The others, admirable in their own ways, were Phil Coulter and Frank Gallagher. Frank, a man I am proud to consider a friend, directed the music for the service (it was the Hume family's express wish that he should do so).
As the coffin was carried from the cathedral after requiem mass, Phil provided moving accompaniment with a sublime instrumental version on piano of his own evocative song, The Town I Loved So Well.
If you do not know it, the song tells of the resilient community spirit of a deprived city, bruised but unbroken by the ravages of the Troubles.
John Hume loved the song, as I do, and could be persuaded to perform it, as in a Donegal bar in 1988* - with Phil Coulter there on piano - as captured in the photo chosen by Frank and shown above.
I cannot claim to have known John well.
As a reporter for the Press Association and later The Daily Telegraph, often enough sent to Belfast, I would speak to him occasionally, in person or on the phone, but our acquaintance would have been no closer than developed by any other busy visiting journalist. Yet I had immense respect for him from the outset and never lost it; I am convinced he did as much, as leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP$, as any other Ulsterman to find a framework for that fragile rapprochement between two essentially irreconcilable traditions, nationalist (his) and loyalist.
In 2010, he was voted the greatest figure in Irish history in a poll by the Irish broadcaster RTE.
I do remember late-night drinks once in the 1970s in the Europa hotel in Belfast, a magnet for journalists and politicians, when I found myself in the company of John and his wife, Pat. I spouted some theory for resolving the problems of Northern Ireland. John just humoured me; Pat preferred an impeccable put-down: "How old are you, Colin?"
Others have traced John Hume's life more compellingly than I could hope to manage. My friend and former colleague Chris Ryder, as knowledgeable an Irish reporter and analyst as they come, does so splendidly in his obituary for The Guardian: John Hume obituary | Politics | The Guardian
The Derry Journal records the depleted congregation as including the president of Ireland Michael D Higgins, the Taoiseach Micheal Martin, the NI first minister Arlene Foster and deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill and present SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. Messages of condolences were sent by Pope Francis, President Bill Clinton and U2’s Bono: IN PICTURES: Funeral of peace maker John Hume in Derry 05.08.20 R.I.P. | Derry Journal
From Chris Ryder's obit, these words leapt out, demonstrating the extent of the obstinance peacemakers had to confront:
His ideas and conciliatory language had been readily accepted by the two governments and recycled as their own on the way to achieving the power-sharing Good Friday agreement of 1998.
In many ways it was a vindication of all he had worked for. However, in the end the concrete prejudice and frozen mindsets that characterised the two Irish traditions prevented Hume from fulfilling the entirety of his vision, his intellectual contribution to challenging political thinking and bringing outside influences to bear on the Irish problem.
Even better, from this noblest of Irish nationalists: “If the word ‘no’ was removed from the English language, unionists would be speechless.” I
Rest easy, John. Ireland and the cause of peace owe you a great deal.
* Frank Gallagher's caption: John Hume waiting on his cue from Phil Coulter for the 3rd verse of the Town I Loved So Well. A night in Reggie’s, Donegal for a delegation of US Congressmen 1988, including the seated Richard Neal
** The classic interpretation of Phil Coulter's song by the late Luke Kelly of The Dubliners ...
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