A look at some images from the life of one Northern Ireland's foremost political leaders.

Starting with an upbeat photo of John Hume at the launch of the party's election campaign in Belfast in 2001.

Image source, Pacemaker

Three years before, the SDLP party leader had led his team through the peace talks. Here he is pictured with his talks team outside Stormont's Castle Buildings after signing the Good Friday Agreement.

Image source, Pacemaker

His role in the Good Friday Agreement earned him the honour of 'Ireland's Greatest' after he topped a 2010 RTÉ poll where viewers voted to choose the greatest person in the history of Ireland.

Presenter Miriam O'Callaghan, pictured below with Mr and Mrs Hume, had campaigned for the peacemaker to win the award.

Image source, Pacemaker

Throughout his time in politics, Mr Hume formed relationships with key politicians, including former US President Bill Clinton, who visited Londonderry three times.

Image source, Pacemaker

But his leadership wasn't always popular. As well as death threats, the party's headquarters was petrol bombed in 1989.

Image source, Pacemaker

Pictured with the late Seamus Mallon, the former deputy leader of the SDLP. Mr Mallon died in January.

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Former BBC Ireland correspondent Denis Murray picks out some key moments in John Hume's political life.

Image source, PA Media

Alastair Campbell was the communications director for Downing Street during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations.

“The thing that John always brought to the discussion was an irrepressible sense of optimism and also realism,” he said.

Many politicians have the “dreamy vision” but lack the practical skills to achieve it.

Mr Hume was not among them, Mr Campbell said.

Instead he was someone “who never gave up, never felt it would not succeed”.

“Everyone else thought it would hit the buffers and he didn’t”.

Even when it seemed all hope was lost of the talks succeeding John would “come into the room with a little bit of a smile on his face convinced we could get from A to B, it might mean going from X to Z to get there, but we could do it if we all stayed focus,” he said.

As a personality, Mr Campbell said, John Hume had “a special quality that was fundamental and absolutely essential to what was happening at the time”.

Image source, sdlp

John Hume showed Northern Ireland’s future generations that their political aims could be achieved through democracy alone, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said.

“There are parents tonight whose children will be going out and they will not be afraid of them coming home,” Mr Eastwood said.

“That was the daily reality for people here for 30 years and John Hume fixed that problem."

His legacy, Mr Eastwood said, is “enormous”.

“But there is a burden there as well, because we have to follow through, create that shared island, the new Ireland that he talked about."

Without the work of John Hume “that would not be possible”, he said.

“What struck me most about John was how long he stuck at it. His ability to keep, keep, keep making the argument until people finally listened.

“He could have quit at any stage. He would have gone down in history had he stopped politics in the mid-seventies. But he didn’t. He stuck with it, I think that is what made him so successful,” he said.

After a bomb attack in the Shankill area of Belfast killed nine people, including one of the IRA bombers, and injured 50 others in 1993, John Hume's wife asked him if he thought peace talks should continue.

Then-Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams was one of the coffin bearers at Shankill bomber Thomas Begley's funeral.

"That was the first time that I said to John, 'do you not think the talks have to end?' and he was so intent on trying to get all violence to stop, I knew that he would continue," Pat Hume said.

Speaking in an interview on the BBC's Nolan Show seven years ago, broadcast again today, Mrs Hume said that her husband's involvement in the peace talks was "very difficult" for the family, especially their young children.

After a loyalist threat was issued to him and his SDLP colleagues, he carried "an extremely heavy burden".

"John had kept the talks very much to himself because I think his feeling was that if heads were to roll, let his head roll, not anybody else's, and if the talks were to succeed, then we would all benefit."

Mark Devenport
BBC News NI Political Editor

Image source, Pacemaker

In 2004 I was filming with John Hume in central Belfast as he canvassed during a European election.

In between handing out leaflets for the man he hoped would succeed him, the former SDLP leader got into a conversation with someone raising money for an international development charity.

John Hume professed support for the cause and suggested that perhaps he could make an appearance at some future event.

But the "chugger" - presumably rewarded on commission - wasn't interested. He just wanted Mr Hume's bank details.

Back then it was pretty unusual to come across someone who didn't instantly recognise the Nobel Peace Prize winner and architect of the Good Friday Agreement.

However by 2020 this reaction is likely to be more commonplace.

Read more from Mark here.

Other US diplomats who were involved in the Northern Ireland peace process have also paid tributes to Mr Hume, including Nancy Soderberg and Bruce Morrison.

Ms Soderberg, a former member of the US National Security Council, was one of President Bill Clinton's key advisers on Northern Ireland during the 1990s.

"We came to rely on John Hume as the best bellwether of possible progress in the peace process," she told Good Morning Ulster.

Ms Soderberg recalled that Mr Hume's advice was essential in President Clinton's decision to change his mind and grant Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams a visa to travel to the US in 1994.

The visa was controversial as the IRA was still involved in violence, but the decision came just months before the paramilitary organisation called a ceasefire.

Image source, Pacemaker

Former US Congressman Bruce Morrison played a key role in the lead up to the IRA ceasefire in August 1994.

He described Mr Hume as "an indomitable spirit" and somebody who could persuade others to his point of view.

"He persuaded with logic and he persuaded with passion," he told BBC News NI.

Read more here.

Image source, DIOCESE OF DERRY AND RAPHOE

Retired Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry Ken Good said what first struck him when he arrived in the city in the early 2000s and met John Hume was his great “personal integrity”.

“You were aware he had moved in the loftiest of company globally, with presidents and politicians, with powerful people and celebrities and yet his head wasn’t turned by any of it," he said.

John Hume remained unchanged, without “any pretence or airs and graces, there was no attention seeking ego,” Bishop Good said.

“There was humility about John, and an ordinariness, he was at peace with himself."

The two men would form a close friendship over the years.

Bishop Good said John Hume “practiced what he preached about reconciliation and peace building”.

Despite facing fierce criticism at times, John “won people over”.

“As I listen to tributes now from people who were his former adversaries, so many of them regard him as a friend, or somebody they trust. That is also to do with his integrity.

“I was a recipient of the warmth and friendship he showed too,” he said.

Image source, PA Media

John Hume's lasting monument is the peace that he dreamed of, said Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown.

He was live on BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster programme to deliver a Thought for the Day in memory of John Hume.

His was a "life well lived," he said.

"John was rooted in this local community. His initial commitment to community was concrete through people- centred initiatives like the Credit Union and housing issues," he said.

"He walked the walk rather than talking the talk. Good leaders have their feet on the ground and get their hands dirty.

"As he said himself, he wanted to build peace through shedding his own sweat, not by shedding another person's blood.

"His life's work was centred not on himself or even on the party he led but on delivering the outcome that people deserve. His lasting monument is the peace he dreamed of."

John Hume will be remembered around the world "for centuries to come" for his contribution to peace, the chair of the Good Friday Agreement talks has said.

Former US Senator George Mitchell made the remarks as he paid a warm tribute to Mr Hume.

He described the Northern Ireland politician as "one of the great persons in all of Irish history".

Mr Hume developed a special connection with diplomats in the US spanning several decades as he worked for peace.

Mr Mitchell told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that John Hume was a "dear personal friend".

"He was not just someone who I'd worked with closely over a period of many years - but he was I think, as most people acknowledge - one of the great persons in all of Irish history."

Read more here.

Flags are flying at half mast at Government Buildings and Iveagh House in Dublin in tribute to John Hume.

The Irish tricolour is also flying at half mast at Dublin's Mansion House and the city's Lord Mayor, Hazel Chu, has opened a book of condolence.

Cork City Council is flying its Irish tricolour at half mast at City Hall to mark the death of Mr Hume, who was Freeman of Cork City.

The council said it wanted to acknowledge "the crucial role John played in bringing peace to the island of Ireland".

Jeanette Warke is a community worker in the Fountain - a strongly Protestant loyalist estate in Londonderry.

She knew John Hume well. Hearing that he had died was a shock, she told Good Morning Ulster, even though she knew how ill he was.

"Here was somebody who had done a lot for the city, airbrushed out," she said.

A long ago trip to Brussels stays in her mind.

"I went with a group of ladies on an educational trip.

"We went to the European Parliament and along came John. We didn't expect him there.

"He said: 'I'm taking you out for dinner tonight'.

"We were delighted. He had this little restaurant booked. Just as the meal was finished, he was sitting opposite me and he looked over and said: 'Jeanette, how's things in the Fountain?'

"I said: 'They're okay, they're fine'.

"'They should be,' he said.

"Then he got off his seat and leaned forward and he beckoned me and leaned over the table and he said: 'The Bogside meets the Fountain'."

Former Policing Board vice-chairman Denis Bradley first remembers John Hume as a history teacher at Derry’s St Columb's College, where he was a pupil.

Mr Bradley remembers being interested but not particularly fascinated by history.

A young Mr Hume “turned that around,” he said.

“He went beyond the dates, and the kings and the queens and the great battles that we talk about and quite often write about in the history books.

“He brought it down into the streets where we lived and challenged us to think about, particularly in the context of Ireland, about unionism and nationalism, about republicanism and about the future,” he said.

As a teacher, Hume liked to provoke and elicit debate among students, Denis remembers.

“He turned my mind in an interesting and creative fashion towards politics,” he said.

Denis later remembers John’s suffering during the early stages of peace negotiations.

“Every tragedy, every other death, was a further blow and he thought that if we could have got this across the line last week or last month, these people would not have died.

“That is a terrible suffering to bear, “he said.

"When you are in that position, and that is the burden you are gifted, the statemen, the real politicians come to the fore".

Enda McClafferty
BBC News NI political correspondent

John Hume's love of his city was only matched by his desire to secure peace for Northern Ireland.

He was a product of Derry- the eldest of seven children born into poverty and he knew at first hand what it could do to people. I think that is what drove him on.

He was headstrong. To use a local word you could call him thran. When he got something in his head, he was very much of the mind that he would see that through. That stood him in good stead.

"He wasn't to be pushed off course even by his own people. When those talks with Gerry Adams were happening - in secret at first - his own people didn't know about it. Seamus Mallon, his deputy leader didn't know.

"And even when they became public, a lot of things were happening - the Shankill bombing, the Greysteel atrocity, yet and all, John Hume stayed firm and stayed true to what he believed in.

"Hume, in a sense in those talks with Gerry Adams, brought Sinn Féin front and centre into the political system here.

"Sinn Féin has kicked on from that point to the detriment of the SDLP.

"John Hume's focus was solely on delivering peace because that was going to save lives. What he was doing for the party was secondary and people would say he got that right.

"I think people are in a much better place because of John Hume.

"We don't know how many people out there are alive because of John Hume, because of the fact that he persisted with the peace process and in the end it worked and we're all sharing in the benefits of it."

Image source, Pacemaker

Image source, AP

A former UVF prisoner who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement has said that the "interesting thing" about John Hume is that he always believed in politics over violence.

Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) leader Billy Hutchinson said that while loyalists mainly met with Mr Hume's party colleague Seamus Mallon, they had many dealings with Mr Hume during the talks.

"He always believed in the power of politics and not in the gun and that made it even more incredible when he did what he did," Mr Hutchinson told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"We all wanted the same thing in terms of socio-economic issues, but we didn't want the same thing in terms of the constitutional position in Northern Ireland, so they were parallel tracks," he said.

A lifelong sports fan, John Hume was president of his hometown football club, Derry City FC.

“John was an amazing man,” the club’s manager, Declan Devine said.

“He was one of the most important Irish men of all time. To have him as our president of the club is something we were so honoured to have as a football club."

After winning the 2012 FAI Cup, the manager and president shared a moment after the game.

Image source, Inpho

“He talked to me about how good it feels to bring special things back into our city, It will never leave me that. The ability to bring that trophy in and make people happy, that was something John Hume was really proud of”.

When the club was struggling financially, John Hume was able to “bring some of the biggest clubs to the Brandywell,” the manager said.

That included clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The US secretary of state has praised John Hume's influence for extending "far beyond the shores where he lived".

Mike Pompeo said that "during the darkest days of Northern Ireland’s recent past, he won the friendship and respect of countless Americans".

"Hume, a leader whose integrity and courage played a profoundly important role in Northern Ireland’s transition from violence to peace," Mr Pompeo added.

Image source, Reuters

"Throughout his career, John Hume believed that just and lasting political solutions could only be achieved through peaceful means, and as a central architect of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, he worked tirelessly to make these aspirations a reality."Many Americans who care deeply about Northern Ireland will mourn the passing of Mr Hume, and the extensive contribution that he made to build peace and to strengthen our transatlantic relations."

He also sent his condolences to Mr Hume's wife, Pat, and his family.

"Probably the most influential thinker for defining what Irish nationalism was about" - that is how former Taoiseach John Bruton sums up John Hume.

He told Good Morning Ulster that Hume put the focus on the goal of reconciliation between people.

"John Hume was the one, more than anyone else, who persuaded Irish republicans that politics, not violence was the way forward," he said.

"He was able to persuade Irish America and Sinn Féin that support for violence was a cul de sac.

"It took a very long time to persuade people who had become used to violence."

On a personal note, he recalled a visit to the Humes' home in Donegal and "a very warm welcome".

And he paid particular tribute to John's wife.

"It's really important to remember today that without Pat, John wouldn't have been able to do all the things he did. She was his greatest supporter."

Image source, PA Media

John Hume was one of the highest-profile politicians in Northern Ireland for more than 30 years.

Watch the below montage reflecting on his life.