The U2 concert held in the Waterfront in Belfast just days ahead of the Belfast Agreement referendum in 1998 was the difference between defeat and victory, leading figures have said in a new book.
The concert was hurriedly announced after Yes campaigners became concerned in the days before the May 22nd referendum that the result was in doubt, especially fearing that a majority of Protestants would say No.
Remembering the photograph of her husband David Trimble, the then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and SDLP leader John Hume with U2 singer Bono, Trimble’s wife, Daphne, says in Stephen Walker’s new biography, David Trimble – Peacemaker: “I honestly believe that without it the referendum might have gone the other way.”
Today, one of Trimble’s key advisers, David Kerr, believes the Waterfront concert “was worth more than 100,000” votes in a campaign that saw 677,000 people in Northern Ireland voting Yes, with 275,000 voting No.
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Even though the number was not required by election law, Trimble believed the agreement had to get the support of more than 70 per cent voters if it had the chance to survive the inevitable later battles surrounding it.
In the end, it breached that target, just – with 71 per cent of those who voted in Northern Ireland on May 22nd, 1998, saying Yes. Later research indicated that between 52 and 58 per cent of Protestants supported it.
Remembering Hume’s friendship with Bono, senior SDLP figure Tim Attwood approached the musician, telling the singer: “Trimble’s in trouble.” Bono replied: “Put it this way, I’ll do whatever John Hume wants me to do.”
Attwood now faced the task of persuading Trimble – often difficult, but always shy – of taking to a stage in front of thousands of young people. He contacted Kerr, one of Trimble’s closest staff.
[ ‘I found myself in between two great men’: Bono finds pride in the name of peaceOpens in new window ]
Kerr was immediately convinced that the concert could be “a game changer”. He told Trimble’s biographer: “I knew instantly it was the opportunity to get the image the campaign desperately needed. We were in trouble.”
Trimble accepted, knowing that he “was in the fight of his life”. The Waterfront was quickly booked, and free tickets given out across Northern Ireland, with Trimble and Hume to appear on stage with Bono.
Trimble was the most nervous, with Hume trying to calm Trimble “more than the other way round”. Then Labour MP Kate Hoey, now a member of the House of Lords, said it was the first time she had seen Trimble “genuinely frightened”.
Initially, Trimble and Hume had intended appearing in jackets and ties. Trimble initially refused to take off his jacket, telling political consultant Mark Fulbrook: “I don’t do that.” Fulbrook replied: “No, you sort of really have to.”
Eventually, the jackets were lost, but not the ties and the 2,500 crowd roared when Bono raised Trimble and Hume’s arms in the air – the film and photograph of which went around the world in the hours afterwards.
Today, Kerr says U2’s Waterfront concert was “the defining moment of the campaign”, showing despite all the bitterness and negativity moderate nationalist and unionists supported the centre ground.
The joy of the referendum result a few days later – when 71 per cent of Northern voters backed the agreement, despite the opposition of the Democratic Unionist Party – was countered, however, by a death threat to Trimble.
The threat in a call to the Trimbles’ home was taken by his teenage son, Richard, just as the result was being announced: “If your dad is out in the street, something will happen to him,” his son was told. Extraordinarily, he did not even tell his father.
