Chai Brady
Pat Hume with her husband John. Irish bishops have paid tribute to Pat Hume, who died yesterday, with the Primate of All-Ireland remembering her as “a friend to all who suffered during Troubled times”.
Following a short illness and surrounded by family, the mother-of-five Mrs Hume passed away in her home in Derry on Thursday, September 2. She was the wife of the late SDLP leader and Nobel Prize winner John Hume.
Taking to social media the Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin said: “God rest Pat Hume, who gently guided the hand of peace over many years – Derry’s ‘First Lady’ and a friend to all who suffered during troubled times. We owe you and John a great debt of gratitude.”
Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown said: “It is with great sadness that I have heard of the death of Pat Hume. In her death the city and indeed our country has returned to God an extraordinary person.
“She was small in stature but a colossus at a very difficult time in the history of this island. She was the rock behind the man who rightly has been credited as the architect of our current peace.”
Peace
Mrs Hume’s death comes just over a year after her husband’s passing. Mr Hume was a key architect in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and his work towards peace in the North has been recognised worldwide.
Mrs Hume worked with him for decades and cared for him during his long battle with dementia.
Bishop McKeown added: “In the course of that long and challenging journey towards the peace we enjoy today, Pat was brave, courageous and uncompromising, yet she was always gentle and profound in respect for other people and their opinions.
“In the gospel Jesus reminds us that “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” (Mt 5:9) I pray that Pat may now enjoy the fullness of this beatitude.”