John Hume peace prizes to go on display in Derry Guildhall

John Hume’s peace prize collection to go on display at an exhibition at Londonderry’s Guildhall on Saturday.

The former SDLP leader was the only person awarded the world’s three major international peace prizes.

The Nobel Peace Prize, the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Junior Non-Violent Prize will all be displayed.

Following Mr Hume’s death in 2020, his wife Pat presented the awards to the people of Derry.

At a ceremony in May 2021, Mrs Hume, who died later that year, said it was right for the people of his home city to share the awards by putting them on permanent display.

At the handover of the prizes, Mrs Hume said her husband had built alliances for change in Ireland and throughout the world but always remained rooted in his native Derry.

Saturday’s event will also include a panel discussion and guest speakers including Derry City and Strabane Mayor Sandra Duffy, Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Colum Eastwood and members of Mr Hume’s family among others.

There will also be a musical performance from the forthcoming Beyond Belief stage production which honours Mr Hume’s life.

The musical drama will premiere in full in April to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

“We all need reminders of what people like John Hume have achieved,” the chairman of the John and Pat Hume Foundation, Sean Farren, told BBC Radio Foyle.

“What their contribution to public life has been so that it can become an inspiration to people in their generation – we all need that strong, clear leadership in our political life.”

One of the highest-profile politicians in Northern Ireland for more than 30 years, Mr Hume helped create the climate that brought an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

He was widely admired for his steadfast commitment to peaceful, democratic politics during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

A founding member and former leader of the SDLP, he played a major role in the peace talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble.

He received the Martin Luther King Jnr Non-Violent Prize the following year and the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize in 2002.