Former Fine Gael deputy leader Simon Coveney has recalled a poignant chance meeting during which he had to help a “vulnerable” John Hume.
The former minister recalled meeting Mr Hume while walking to a meeting in Brussels some years ago. He said the former SDLP leader “walking quite frantically” towards him.
“His face anxious and furrowed, glasses loose at the end of his nose, sweat dripping from his forehead, jacket in hand, tie loosened, his shirt wet through to the skin.
“It was John Hume, I couldn’t believe it, a hero of mine, one of the reasons I committed to entering politics in the first instance,” he said.
Mr Coveney, who stepped down as a minister and TD ahead of the recent election, delivered the fourth annual John Hume European Spirit of Peace lecture in Dublin this week. A former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Coveney played a major role in Northern Irish politics.
Organised by the John and Pat Hume Foundation, the event took place at the Institute of International and European Affairs.
He realised Mr Hume was in distress and went to help him. The Nobel Laureate asked him if he knew him and then told him he was lost, unable to find his hotel and was an hour late for a lecture he was due to give. He had been walking for hours.
“What started that evening as an unexpected encounter with a then vulnerable John Hume developed into a conversation that hasn’t left me.”
Mr Coveney said that as they walked, the Derry politician spoke to him of his belief in the European Union and the need human beings had for each other. He recounted many of his core messages about respect for difference, the need to build institutions and a commitment to a healing process.
“It was like he wanted to impart wisdom to a stranger he’d just met. I’m told by those close to him that he did that a lot but on that day I felt special,” the former Fine Gael politician said.
It did not matter how often people heard Mr Hume recount his principles and the same stories, their “authenticity and truth” remain as powerful now as they have always been, Mr Coveney said.
When they reached Mr Hume’s hotel, he told Mr Coveney he knew who he was. He recalled meeting him in Cork and wished him good luck.
“That conversation, that focus on conflict and how to bring it to an end, seems more relevant today than ever. You get the sense that much of the world has lost its way, with tension and conflict rising, forgetting what should be familiar lessons of history,” Mr Coveney said.
Mr Hume suffered from dementia in the years before his death.
