[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 148 (Friday, October 16, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H11031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CONGRATULATING JOHN HUME, A WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I simply want to take this time to note that 
the Nobel Prize for peace today was given to two Irish heroes named 
David Trimble and John Hume. I do not know Mr. Trimble, who is the 
leader of the Protestant groups in Northern Ireland seeking peace, but 
I do know John Hume. I have known him for a good many years, and I 
think that his selection today was an absolutely perfect choice.
  John Hume is a person who, as a very young man, began to peacefully 
protest the fact that there was a systematic policy to deny employment 
to Catholic males in Northern Ireland. He began to lead peaceful 
marches out of the Catholic neighborhoods to try to peacefully protest 
that fact, in the spirit of Martin Luther King.
  The Protestant forces reacted violently. He was beaten a number of 
times. At one point he laid down in front of a tank with his wife 
standing just a few feet away. She thought he was a dead man. 
Fortunately, the tank stopped.
  He also experienced violence at the hands of Catholic forces in 
Northern Ireland, because he was insisting that whatever actions taken 
by Catholic forces be peaceful, so his reward was that they tried to 
assassinate him many times. His home was firebombed at least once, I 
believe twice, once with his family in it.
  He even had the experience of being at a country roadside, at a stop 
sign, when a car plowed into him from behind at a high rate of speed. 
The car exploded. He walked out of the car without a scratch, and a 
week later collapsed from post-trauma stress reaction, with his heart 
in fibrillation, and almost died.
  Today he has been one of, if not the leading voice in all of Ireland 
for peace, and he has been instrumental in bringing the IRA together in 
peace talks with their Protestant counterparts. I think it is safe to 
say that there would be no peace process in Ireland, were it not for 
John Hume.
  I simply want to take this time to note on this side of the Atlantic 
that a true hero of our age has been nominated or has been named the 
recipient of the Nobel Prize for peace today, along with Mr. Trimble, 
who also has been heroic in trying to lead the Protestant forces in 
Northern Ireland to a peaceful resolution of their differences.
  In all of the years of public life, I have never met a person as 
inspiring as John Hume. I have never met a person who has been willing 
to undergo more physical violence to his own person than John Hume, 
except perhaps for our colleague in this Chamber, the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. John Lewis).
  It just seems to me that we should today take note of the fact that 
the Nobel committee made a superb choice. I congratulate John Hume, I 
congratulate his wife, Pat, who has been with him every inch of the way 
in helping him through a lifetime of work for peace.
  If I were asked to name a single person in the Western World who 
epitomizes what Christian values are supposed to be, I would say that 
John Hume is that person. I was thrilled to see that he was one of the 
two winners of that Nobel Prize today.

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