In its statement, the Swedish Academy said: ``John Hume has throughout been the clearest and most consistent of Northern Ireland's political leaders in his work for a peaceful solution.'' It also said Trimble had shown ``great political courage when, at a critical stage in the process, he advocated solutions which led to the peace agreement.''

John Hume, is the 61-year-old leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the main Catholic (nationalist) party. He is a former teacher whose father advised him never to go into politics because ``it's all about sectarianism uphere.'' David Trimble heads the largest Protestant party, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), which wants to retain Ulster's links with Britain. He now heads the newly elected Northern Irish government.

History will credit Hume with ploughing the lonely furrow of Northern Irish peace. Although peace is an impossibility without the support of Trimble and the people he leads, it was Hume who began the process, of negotiating with Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army.

Despite being reviled, for consorting with terrorists, he pursued this course drafting the plan to end the conflict in Ulster.

It was following this that the 1993 Downing Street Declaration emerged, underlining that Britain would not oppose the re-unification of Ireland if a majority of Ulster's population wanted it. This led to a 17-month ceasefire by the IRA, while Protestant leaders in Westminster blocked further progress in the peace process.

It was John Hume, once again who in July 1997 helped reinstate the shatteredcease-fire. A year ago, Hume put aside personal political ambition, deciding not to run for the presidency of the Republic of Ireland in order to concentrate on pushing forward the peace process.

Tony Blair, whose government gave the Irish peace process absolute priority after it formed government in may last year, led the tributes to the two men and to the province where sharp divisions between Protestants and Catholics still exist. He said that there could be no worthier winners adding that it was ``a prize for democracy, a prize in which all the people of Northern Ireland can feel immense pride and serve as a spur to overcoming the remaining difficulties as we try to build a lasting peace.''