Dean Godson - Himself Alone - David Trimble and the Ordeal Of Unionism

After the first round of balloting, Trimble’s appointed scrutineer, Mark Neale of Portadown, told him of the result:

Smyth – 60 (7%)

Ross – 116 (14%)

Maginnis – 117 (15%)

Taylor – 226 (28%)

Trimble – 287 (36%)

‘Oh, that’s not what If … ng wanted to happen,’ declared Trimble. ‘Well, what do I do now?’ asked the Upper Bann MP. ‘Tell your wife and start writing an acceptance speech,’ replied Neale. Trimble duly proceeded to do so – but not before he had pulled his new ‘Seige [sic] of Drumcree’ medal out of his pocket. As Neale recalls, even at this moment of maximum drama, Trimble did this less out of loyalist pride than out of a desire to point out the spelling error. 20 When this result was read out in the hall, Jim Wilson, the party chief executive, immediately saw the mounting astonishment on the faces of the MPs. ‘This was the UUC saying “let’s jump a generation”.’ 21 In the heat of battle, Trimble also thought back to the Upper Bann selection of 1990, when the first-round winner, Samuel Gardiner, had been overhauled by himself in the final ballot after hitting a ceiling. He feared that Taylor could still do the same to himself. But Trimble’s support was wide as well as deep, and in any case there was no way in which Ken Maginnis would ever throw his support to Taylor as George Savage had done for Trimble in 1990. After Smyth dropped out, the chairman, Jim Nicholson, read out the results of the second round:

Ross – 91 (11%)

Maginnis – 110 (13.5%)

Taylor – 255 (31.5%)

Trimble – 353 (44%)

Trimble now knew for sure that he would become the 12th Unionist leader since the formation of the UUC in 1905, and felt utterly flat inside. There was thus an inevitability about the final result as far as the cognoscenti were concerned – as Trimble’s rivals sat with arms folded and legs crossed. Ross could not break out from his core of supporters from the farming community west of the Bann, dropped out. So, too, did Maginnis: he could see that not only did Trimble do well outside of the greater Belfast area generally, but that he had made substantial inroads amongst some of his own constituents in Fermanagh, notably in the Newtownbutler, Rosslea and Lisnaskea areas close to the border. After the third ballot, Nicholson announced the result of the run-off:

Taylor – 333 (42%)

Trimble – 466 (58%)

Trimble remembers one big blur; whilst Daphne Trimble says that ‘on one level I went into shock. Nothing would ever be the same again. Part of David didn’t want it at all; a part of him wants a quiet life – to sit at home and listen to music and to go to the opera. But at least as far as the house was concerned, his election didn’t make much difference since he doesn’t do the normal things that husbands do like the gardening. When we married he at least made an effort and we definitely had shelves put up.’ 22

How had he done it? After all, here was a man who just a few years earlier could not even win a council by-election in ultra-safe Lisburn. Moreover, this bookish academic had now been elected as the leader of one of the least intellectual political forces in the United Kingdom; indeed, he was the first university graduate since the foundation of Northern Ireland to lead the UUP, for many of his patrician predecessors had served in the forces but never attended a university (Carson was a graduate, but effectively handed over the leadership to Craig upon the foundation of the state; and Faulkner matriculated at Queen’s in the autumn of 1939, but never graduated). 23 Nor did he seek to make himself congenial to his colleagues – indeed, in some ways the very opposite. ‘Drumcree’ was an obvious answer, and is certainly the explanation for his victory most favoured by senior colleagues. Likewise, Caroline Nimmons, who did much of the telephone canvassing of the delegates, says that Drumcree was referred to positively more often than any other issue. 24 Others, such as Jim Wilson, are not so sure: they think that it may have cost him as much as it gained him, and Trimble certainly said as much in his first interview with the Portadown Times after his victory. 25 Gordon Lucy, one of Trimble’s closest aides in the contest, attributes his victory to a wider range of causes, though he does not doubt Drumcree’s importance. He notes that Trimble had built up a profile well before that. Such sentiments were expressed to Ruth Dudley Edwards during her visit that summer to Aughnacloy, Co. Tyrone for ‘Black Saturday’ (the last Saturday in August, when the Royal Black Preceptory hold their most important procession). Clogher Valley Blackmen told her that Molyneaux’s successor should be higher profile and more combative. ‘We’ve been too stiff-necked and proud to explain ourselves,’ said one. ‘We’ve got to change.’ 26 They also wanted someone who would resist the pan-nationalist juggernaut and not be taken in by the British Government (hence Trimble’s pledge never to go into No. 10 alone). Finally, the hated media had made John Taylor the favourite. ‘There may have been an element of pig-headedness in voting for Trimble,’ noted one UUC member. ‘Delegates wanted to buck the trend.’ In a group as ‘thran’ as the Ulster Unionist grassroots, that cannot be discounted. Indeed, it was an utterly paradoxical victory: here was Trimble, an untelegenic figure with crooked teeth (who stormed out of studios and distrusted the local media hugely), running as the improbable herald of almost Mandelsonian modernisation. Yes, he was articulate, but his TV performances were often larded with obscure references to the arcana of the talks process – and were scarcely populistic either in content or delivery. Thus, a vote for Trimble was, paradoxically, a vote both for change and for cussed defiance of Ulster’s many enemies.

The reaction in portions of the Irish media would doubtless have vindicated the UUC grassroots in their choice – if, that is, any of them read southern newspapers. Dick Grogan, then Northern Editor of the Irish Times , stated that ‘he clearly regards compromise as a surrender, and that bodes ill for all-party talks … His quick temper and truculent manner will indeed bring a drastic change of image to the party leadership and align it more closely to the manner of political conduct favoured by the DUP.’ 27 But Trimble’s allies in the media were delighted. Ruth Dudley Edwards, writing an open letter to Trimble in the Dublin Sunday Independent on 17 September 1995, advised him to ‘learn from your enemies: Sinn Fein has much to teach you. First, its leaders have had the humility and good sense to learn painstakingly how to present themselves. We may laugh at their Armani suits, we may sneer about their use of image consultants but the fact remains that they leaped straight from enforced media silence to a mastery of the media. So please do what every other political party does and have your spokesmen take basic courses in television technique. And persuade them that it is not un-Protestant to smile or demonstrate that sense of humour they exhibit in private … one last tip: if the UUP is intent on modernising itself, isn’t it time it invested in an answering machine for your Glengall Street headquarters?’: one such device was soon acquired, and Trimble himself bought a mobile telephone. Significantly, she counselled Trimble against forming a pan-unionist front with the DUP, and urged him to surround himself not with ‘hardline friends’ but with liberals such as Ken Maginnis and Reg Empey; this, of course, is exactly what happened and may well be what Trimble wanted to happen all along anyhow (though it remains open to question how much influence she exerted towards that end). The Daily Telegraph also stated that despite his uncompromising line on decommissioning, ‘it would be wrong to conclude that his election necessarily represents a setback for the peace process … a strong Unionist voice is badly needed to redress the imbalance that has been allowed to develop within the peace process’. 28 But it was not only instinctive Unionists who were pleased: Andrew Marr in his Independent column correctly predicted that despite the images of Drumcree, ‘the great Crustacean is shedding its shell. David Trimble’s election as leader of the UUP is only the first stage in what is likely to be a dramatic reshaping of Unionist politics … he is something rather new, a modernising but utterly committed Ulster Unionist. To bien pensant opinion that probably sounds about as likely as finding a vegetarian head hunter or a druid with a PhD. But it is real and fascinating and of great importance … I think he will be difficult, and sharp, and unfamiliar, and it is clear that these are exceptionally dangerous and sensitive times. But it seems a little odd to go on for years about stupid Unionists and then panic when you get a clever one. That’s part of the lesson of the past twelve months. This man has a conscience and a fast mind. And for the time being he is the future of Northern Ireland.’ Unsurprisingly, Marr was in regular contact in this period with No. 10, the NIO – and with Trimble’s friend, Ruth Dudley Edwards. 29