[2] He was instrumental in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, and (along with John Hume) won the Nobel Peace Prize that year for his efforts.

He was later elected to become the first First Minister of Northern Ireland, although his tenure was turbulent and frequently interrupted by disagreements over the timetable for Provisional Irish Republican Army decommissioning.

In June 2006, he accepted a life peerage in the House of Lords, taking the title of Baron Trimble, of Lisnagarvey in the County of Antrim.

[9] In 1983, as he sat in his office at the university, he heard gunshots which turned out to be those of the IRA killers of Edgar Graham, a friend and fellow law lecturer.

[17] Trimble was elected to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention in 1975 as a Vanguard member for Belfast South, and for a time he served as the party's joint deputy leader, along with the Ulster Defence Association's Glenn Barr.

[7][14] Trimble and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley walked hand-in-hand as the march, banned since 1997, proceeded down the road.

[13] Arguments over the extent of Provisional Irish Republican Army decommissioning led to repeated disruptions during Trimble's tenure as First Minister.

He said: "I am sorry to have to say to the Prime Minister that I think that the hope expressed by the Honourable Member for Foyle [John Hume] that this will be part of the healing process is likely to be misplaced.

[33] At the general elections of 2005, Trimble was defeated in Upper Bann by the DUP's David Simpson in his bid for re-election to Parliament in Westminster.

[38] Trimble announced on 17 April 2007 that he had decided to join the Conservative Party in order to have greater influence in politics in the United Kingdom.

[41] On 29 January 2013, Trimble and Aznar co-wrote an article in The Times condemning Hezbollah and calling on European governments to list it as a terrorist organisation.

[43] On 14 June 2010, Trimble was appointed an observer to the Israeli special independent public Turkel Commission of Inquiry into the Gaza flotilla raid.

[45] On the commission were former Israeli Supreme Court Justice, Jacob Turkel, and former Technion University President, Amos Horev, as well two other members added in July 2010.

[46]) In addition, the commission had two foreign observers, Trimble and former head of the Canadian military's judiciary, Judge Advocate General, Ken Watkin, who took part in hearings and discussions, but did not vote on the final conclusions.

[47][48] The panel, in January 2011, concluded both Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and the interception of the flotilla "were found to be legally pursuant to the rules of international law".

[5][8] Richard Trimble is a maths teacher and head of the sixth form at Graveney School in Tooting, South West London.

[34] His son Nicholas was active within the Ulster Unionist Party and serving on the Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council at the time of his father's death.

[52] Nicholas Trimble was co-opted in 2016 to replace Alexander Redpath as a Councillor representing Downshire West on Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.

[53] Trimble admitted in July 2019 that he was "forced" to change his position on same-sex marriage and partnerships after voting against them, because of his lesbian daughter Vicky, who married her girlfriend Rosalind Stephens in Scotland in 2017.

[57] The Nobel Institute noted: As the leader of the traditionally predominant party in Northern Ireland, David Trimble showed great political courage when, at a critical stage of the process, he advocated solutions which led to the [Belfast (Good Friday)] peace agreement.