A new unauthorised biography of David Trimble details how Bono got the Northern Irish Unionist leader to shake hands with his political opposite John Hume.
Initially contacted by the SDLP to lend support to Hume and the 1998 ‘Vote Yes’ campaign, Bono recognised it was the Unionists that needed to be embraced in the run up to the Peace agreement referendum:
“John, I don’t feel that our value here is to reinforce you with the nationalist community,” Bono recalls telling Hume. “It’s to reinforce Trimble with the Unionist community. If you can put something together, we’ll be happy to interface.” (Full article)
From the Belfast Telegraph three part series of extracts from the as yet unpublished ‘Himself Alone: David Trimble’ by The Daily Telegraph’s political commentator Dean Godson. Out in March 2005.