Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the passing of Pat Hume
Date: Thu 2nd Sep, 2021 | 20:41
“There will be so many people who will hear of the passing of Pat Hume with great sadness. Their hearts will go out to her family and close associates.
Their sadness, however, may I believe be helped as they recall Pat’s extraordinary contribution to life on this island and beyond.
That life of Pat Hume was one of total commitment to community, to the possibilities of peace, to the measures of non-violence that were necessary to assert, vindicate and achieve the results of civil rights.
While her support of the work of her late husband and Nobel Prize recipient, John Hume, was an exercise in solidarity, a partnership in courage, endurance and fortitude, her personal contribution was unique, immense and important in its own right.
Pat’s personal contribution as teacher, a mother in conditions of conflict, political adviser, constituency secretary and consoler of the victims of oppression from so many sources, was extraordinary in every sense.
The care, compassion and consistent support she gave was exemplary and without a hint of exclusion.
It was an honour to address the John and Pat Hume foundation last June and to have the opportunity of recognising the contribution of John and herself to the Peace Process.
Pat’s work, like that of John, will always have an indelible place in the minds of all Irish people, in particular those courageous people, of all dispositions, who sought a principled peace as an alternative to violence in any form, who worked day and night for a future that would be inclusive of the best of values.
Sabina and I and our family, I know, will be but a few among the many who will wish to offer our condolences to her children, wider family, friends and the people of Derry and beyond in whose hearts she will always hold a place.
Síocháin shíoraí dá hanam uasal lách croíúil”