John Hume, Northern Ireland peace maker, dies
John Hume, a key Roman Catholic architect of Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, has died at the age of 83.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending 30 years of sectarian violence - a prize he shared with Northern Ireland's then-first minister, David Trimble.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair described him as a "political titan; a visionary who refused to believe the future had to be the same as the past".
It was in 1968 that Hume joined a movement to protect the civil rights of Northern Ireland's pro-Irish Roman Catholic minority, fighting discrimination by the pro-British Protestant majority in everything from housing to education.
As leader of the moderate Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), Hume was an important advocate of non-violence as fighting erupted between Irish nationalists - who wanted a united Ireland - and pro-British forces - including the British Army - who wanted to maintain the region's British status.
By 1998, more than 3,600 had died.
In a pivotal breakthrough in 1993, Hume took part in pioneering talks with Gerry Adams.
At the time, Adams was the leader of the Sinn Fein party that was then the political wing of the guerrilla Irish Republican Army, known as the IRA.
The talks helped pave the way for the Good Friday Agreement.
John Hume's family said he died in a care home in his native Londonderry in the early hours of Monday (August 3) morning.
