Pat Hume 'would welcome prince and pauper alike'

The death of Pat Hume has sparked a wave of tributes. most notably from the political world where her work with her husband, John Hume, was seen as instrumental to Northern Ireland's peace process.

But there were other sides to her- a teacher, a community figure, someone who the people of Londonderry could, and often did, turn to when they needed help.

For Joan Harkin, a former pupil of Pat Hume, she was a woman who would "welcome a prince or a pauper to her door with the same love".

Joan, who was taught at Waterside Girls' School in Derry in the 1960s, said her "personality never changed all through her life, she was just lovely".

"I used to look at her on the TV and say she taught me and I would have been so so proud of the fact that I knew her before she became famous," Joan said.

'Lucky to have them'

She told BBC News NI's Evening Extra programme that John Hume, who died in 2020, would often come to the school to collect his wife.

"We were always a bit in awe of him because he was a businessman even back then, but on Fridays we used to do baking and that was the highlight of our week, baking these wee buns to take home.

"John used to come in every Friday without fail and we'd be sitting saying I bet you he's going to eat one of mine today."

Joan Harkin said Pat Hume could have had her own career in politics

Joan Harkin said Pat Hume was "so smart" and "could have made a career for herself in politics", but she chose to be behind her husband.

She added that John, one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement - for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with then-UUP leader David Trimble - may not have achieved "half" of what he did had it not been for his wife's support.

"I do feel a bit emotional thinking about it all, because there'll never be another Pat Hume or John Hume, not in our lifetime, not in any lifetime," Joan explained.

"I suppose we were very lucky to have them."

'Never forgotten'

Irene, who lived in the traditionally unionist Fountain Estate in Derry, said she approached John Hume for help on a matter as they needed someone "who knew how politics worked".

"We knocked doors that night and those doors weren't necessarily opened and they were really a light at the end of what we could see as a dark tunnel at that time," she said.

"We met Pat when we were filling out legal documentation the following day in the office and she was very helpful, very human."

• Listen: Pat Hume on her life with John

Seventeen years later, Irene explained, she met Pat Hume at a function and was surprised to find that when she introduced herself she remembered their first meeting straight away.

"They say behind every good man there's an even better woman, but to me the two of them, John initially, but Pat had the human side of her that she just seen a face and could remember the story behind that face - and to me it was just amazing.

"At that time I was just reaching out to anybody that could have helped us and the fact that they were the ones that did, you know, regardless of my background or my politics, it's something that I have never forgotten."

Daphne Trimble, with her husband David Trimble, struck up a close bond with the Hume family

John Hume and David Trimble were seen as partnership behind the Good Friday Agreement, but Pat Hume and Lord Trimble's wife Daphne also formed their own "genuine friendship", bonding over shared experiences.

Daphne Trimble said the pair were able to "gel together" and form a relationship as their families went through similar events.

"We both had a lot of the same experiences," she described.

"We both lived with the threat of violence hanging over our heads and bringing up children in that."

Mrs Trimble said both women had experienced times where they had a "knot of tension in our stomach".

Despite the "heavy times", the pair had fun together too - she remembered one occasion when fundraising in the United States they had the opportunity to go shopping together in a San Francisco department store.

"We were going up the escalator and somebody standing at the top of the escalator pointed to us and said 'oh, you're the two ladies from Northern Ireland', and we just burst into a fit of the giggles."