Death of John Hume
Posted by Jim on August 4, 2020
its a very sad day for the hume family, derry and ireland.
thinking of the wonderful Pat and his children and grandchildren.
he is a man for whom history will not have to be rewritten. he may have been ‘irelands greatest’ but he was also a husband, father, grandfather, brother and beloved uncle. surprisingly for someone so well known he was the quietest of the hume men.
while his political achievements are many the lessons i will take forward are not about politics. the values i will take are the importance of education and the value of community.
when i was a child one of my strongest memories of him is that he always asked about school (as lots of adults do) the difference was john followed up with lots of questions.. ‘why that subject?’ ‘how did you hope to you use it?’ .. it was only in later years hearing him give an empassioned speech at daddys retirement that i started to realise that it was not just idle chat. as the first of his family to go to secondary school he truely believed education was the key to transforming your opportunities. and education is not just about school, its about life long learning. about talking, and listening with an open heart. john believed in valuing difference….perhaps if we talked to each other about race, gender, sexuality, religion etc and truely listened to each other to educate ourselves we would be less likely to carry hate or hurt in our hearts.
john loved derry and the people of derry. community was everything. he was able to see the power in connection and used it to wonderful effect. he saw poverty in derry and while individually people had little, together they had enough to support each other and the credit union was born. he had much the same idea around housing etc. he truely believed politics is irrelevant if you cant feed your family or keep a roof over your head.
good bye john, you truely were one of a kind and your loss will be felt sorely. we will carry on your message
‘we shall overcome’