John Hume quotes

When people are divided, the only solution is agreement. (John Hume)
Total ghettoization, because they were in charge of public housing, the local council, and they deliberately located people in a ghetto situation in order to ensure that they maintained control. View quote
John Hume
The violence had broken out in both sides, but our philosophy as a party was very, very clear. View quote
John Hume
In working class districts, you had several families living together in the one house, and it was very difficult to get a house, because the politicians who controlled housing were doing so in a very discriminatory fashion. View quote
John Hume
The basis of peace and stability, in any society, has to be the fullest respect for the human rights of all its people. View quote
John Hume
If the word 'No' was removed from the English language, Ian Paisley would be speechless. View quote
John Hume
My father was unemployed and I was the eldest of seven children. We were very poor. And when you ask how did we support ourselves, the only funding that we had was unemployment payments. View quote
John Hume
Therefore they should come to the table and reach an agreement that would protect their identity. View quote
John Hume
Like everybody at that age, I read an awful lot of pulp fiction. But at the same time, I also read quite a bit of history and read that as much for pleasure as part of a curriculum. View quote
John Hume
We did not seek ideological confrontation. View quote
John Hume
Before the arrival of the Credit Union, people who were from the poor background or a working class background couldn't borrow from banks. (John Hume)
I never thought in terms of being a leader. I thought very simply in terms of helping people. View quote
John Hume
The civil rights movement in the United States was about the same thing, about equality of treatment for all sections of the people, and that is precisely what our movement was about. View quote
John Hume
In coming to that agreement, my party had a clear philosophy throughout. In Northern Ireland, we should have institutions that respected the differences of the people and that gave no victory to either side. View quote
John Hume
They believed that Britain was in Ireland defending their own interests, therefore the Irish had the right to use violence to put them out. My argument was that that type of thinking was out of date. View quote
John Hume
The basic policy of the British Government was that since the majority of people in Northern Ireland wished to remain in the United Kingdom, that was that. We asked what would happen if the majority wanted something else, if the majority wanted to see Irish unity. View quote
John Hume
I was grateful for the opportunity to make a difference. The political violence really started in 1970-1971. The political difficulties start a little bit beyond that. View quote
John Hume
The only thing I shall talk about is my sporting achievements at school. My primary sporting achievement at school was that I dodged games for two complete years and was well through the third year before they discovered that I had completely avoided all games. View quote
John Hume
Every child growing up will look to their parents, my mother and my father. My grandmother lived with us. I picked up quite a bit of family lore and history from her, which was interesting. View quote
John Hume
My father was a civil servant, fairly sort of middle ranking, low to middle ranking. He worked almost entirely in what was then called Administrative Labour, dealing with employment and unemployment issues. View quote
John Hume
There were two mentalities, and both mentalities had to change. There was what I called the Afrikaner mind set of the Unionist politicians, which was holding all power in their own hands, and discriminating, and their objective was to protect their identity. (John Hume)
These are the influences that everybody has. Some individuals might stand out because of one thing or another, but whether one's perception as a child of what was important or not is accurate, I don't know. View quote
John Hume
In my opinion, what changed the situation eventually - and, of course, it took a lot of time to change it, things like that don't change in a week or a fortnight - was the new educational system. View quote
John Hume
People were so keen to get investment. In those days, there was quite significant unemployment in Northern Ireland, and that had been the general pattern in Northern Ireland for many, many years. View quote
John Hume
I grew up in Derry, of course, and it was - Derry was the worst example of Northern Ireland's discrimination. View quote
John Hume