Graduation Address

"Learning Focus of Life; UNB Fall Convocation" Daily Gleaner (23 October 2000). (UA Case 69 Box 2)

Trimble, delivering the convocation address, recalled his years in politics in Ireland and the struggles that led to the Belfast Agreement in 1998.

"One thing the years have done, because there were moments of success and moments of failure, is they have given me some perspective on the ups and down we’ve seen in the past five years."

He too warned the graduates not to let the fear of failure get in the way of their dreams, advising them instead to look both triumph and failure in the face. He said some of his friends warned him not to try to bring the Northern Ireland Protestants into a peace agreement because the risk of failure was too great.

"But without risk, there can be no success," he said.