N. IRISH LEADERS AWARDED NOBEL.

Byline: Fawn Vrazo Knight Ridder Newspapers

John Hume and David Trimble, the Catholic and Protestant politicians whose energy and courage underpinned the achievement of a peace agreement for Northern Ireland this year after 30 years of violent troubles, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

Hume, 61, is leader of Northern Ireland's largest Catholic political party, the Social Democratic and Labor Party, and Trimble, 54, heads the largest Protestant party, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). Both were cited in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for their work toward ending ``the national religious and social conflict in Northern Ireland that has cost over 3,500 people their lives.''

Belfast residents greeted the award with reserved optimism, well aware that the final outcome of Northern Ireland's peace process is not certain, and serious disagreements remain.

Hume, who is often referred to as architect of the peace settlement because of his decades-long dedication to bringing Catholics and Protestants together, ``has throughout been the clearest and most consistent of Northern Ireland's political leaders in his work for a peaceful solution,'' said the Nobel committee statement.

But it was Trimble, observed the committee, who took the greatest political risk in backing a peace settlement that many hard-line Protestant unionists - including members of his own party - still oppose.

``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 peace agreement,'' said the statement.

Several other notable players in Northern Ireland's peace process were not named by the committee, although it did cite ``the importance of the positive contributions to the peace process by other Northern Irish leaders, and by the governments of Great Britain, Ireland and the United States.''

George Mitchell 

Chief among these was George Mitchell, the former U.S. Senate majority leader chosen in 1996 by the prime ministers of Britain and the Irish Republic to chair Northern Ireland peace talks. It had long been speculated that he would share in the Nobel honors for his skillful and patient guidance of the difficult negotiations.

After nearly two years punctuated by angry outbursts, walkouts and ceasefire breakdowns, those negotiations produced last spring's Good Friday accord, which established a new power-sharing Assembly - with voting weighted to give equal representation to both the Catholic and Protestant communities - as well as several ``North-South'' bodies linking Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. The agreement was strongly endorsed by Northern Ireland voters in a May referendum.

Also unnamed by the Nobel committee was Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA-allied party Sinn Fein, which represents Northern Ireland's staunchest Catholic republicans.

There would have been no peace agreement had Adams not pushed IRA members and other republicans - whose ultimate goal is getting the British out of Northern Ireland and uniting it with the Republic of Ireland - toward a democratic rather than violent solution of the 30-year conflict. But Adams' selection as a Nobel laureate would have been highly controversial since the IRA has yet to turn in any of its illegal weaponry.

The so-called ``decommissioning'' of weapons by the IRA and by Protestant paramilitary groups remains a significant hurdle, and mutual distrust over the issue was apparent in comments made Friday by both Trimble and Adams.

Adams, who was in Philadelphia of Friday as part of a U.S. tour seeking support for Sinn Fein, said he was especially pleased for his ``good friend'' - and political rival - Hume. But he also said, ``I hope that David Trimble will accept the responsibility that goes along with these recognitions.''

Trimble was also in America, where he is traveling with Social Democratic and Labor Party deputy leader Seamus Mallon to encourage U.S. investment in Northern Ireland. ``I hope very much this award doesn't turn out to be premature because there is still much work to be done to secure peace,'' he said.

Asked why he felt that Adams had not shared in the prize, Trimble said that there are ``further steps that have to be taken. I hope Mr. Adams can take those steps.''

In Belfast, Hume said that he was ``very deeply honored to have received this award . . . But I see it not as an award to myself but as very powerful international approval of the peace process in Northern Ireland and a strong international approval of peace for all the people of Northern Ireland.''

Ireland's two leading mainstream politicians, Hume and Trimble have come closer politically through their joint backing of the new peace agreement, though the two are not close personally. They have contrasting personalities and political styles.

Hume, who usually looks rumpled and harried in wrinkled suits and dirty eyeglasses, is the more politically outgoing and well-spoken of the two. It was Hume's efforts in the early 1990s to forge a relationship with Gerry Adams and between Adams and the British government that laid the groundwork for the historic agreement.

Hume is believed to be in weak health and his doctor reportedly has advised him to slow down. That is thought to be why he stepped aside earlier this year to allow deputy Social Democratic and Labor Party leader Mallon to become deputy leader - the top minority position - in the new Northern Ireland Assembly.

Trimble, who was elected the leader of that assembly, is a tall, slim man who looks professorial in thick brown glasses and impeccable suits. Noted for his shyness, he has the habit - unusual for a politician - of bolting away from approaching reporters.

Brave choices

Still, Trimble has made some brave political choices. Just a few years ago, he walked triumphantly at the side of Protestant hard-liner Ian Paisley after Northern Ireland police allowed a controversial Protestant Orange Order parade to pass through a Catholic neighborhood in Portadown. Last year, with his own political future at risk, Trimble played a pivotal role in urging Orange Order members to behave responsibly as the same march was blocked by police.

This was not the first time the Nobel committee honored Northern Ireland's peace effort. In 1976, two Catholic women, Betty Williams, who now lives in Florida, and Mairead Corrigan, who remains in Belfast, were given the award for their efforts in founding an organization called the International Peace People group.

That was 22 years ago, and since then many more deaths - mostly of civilians - have occurred in Northern Ireland's six counties as its majority Protestant population and minority Catholic population battle for supremacy and opposing political goals.

Today, Northern Ireland's two communities are still divided socially and politically. The peace agreement is meant to turn both sides toward entirely democratic, instead of violent, battles until the day when future Northern Ireland generations can vote peacefully on the issue of unification with Ireland.

On the streets of Belfast on Friday night, residents greeted news of the Nobel with the same wary hope they have expressed over other steps toward peace. Those steps have often been followed by enormous setbacks - like this summer's terrorist bombing that killed 29 people in Omagh.

``I don't feel 100 percent (about hopes for peace) - but 99 percent'' said Tracey Colgan, a young public relations worker standing Friday night outside Belfast's ornate Robinson's Pub. Both the Nobel award and the prospects for future peace are ``very good, I'm very pleased,'' said another pubgoer, chef Sean Gallagher.

But continuing disagreement over the decommissioning of IRA weapons, he said, ``could wreck it.''

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Photo

PHOTO (Color) Catholic political leader John Hume, left, and Protestant Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble are shown together in this 1995 photo.

Brian Thompson/Associated Press