LAT: N. Irish Nobelist (Trimble) Quits as Head of Party [View All]

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N. Irish Nobelist Quits as Head of Party
Moderate Protestant leader Trimble blames parliamentary defeat on the IRA and Sinn Fein.
By Ron DePasquale, Special to The Times


BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble, who helped engineer Northern Ireland's historic Good Friday agreement, resigned as the leader of his moderate Protestant party Saturday after its humiliating defeat in British parliamentary elections.

Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party was swept from nearly all its seats by pro-Britain voters frustrated with the Irish Republican Army and the failed 1998 power-sharing agreement.

Only one Ulster Unionist survived the tumultuous election as Protestant voters shifted to the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party.

Trimble, speaking on BBC Radio, blamed his downfall on the IRA and its political ally, Sinn Fein, accusing them of ignoring the agreement that was meant to lead to the disarming of the militia that has fought British rule in the province....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-trimble8may08,0,5354819.story?coll=la-home-world