Editing John Hume (section)

==Early life and education==

Hume was born in 1937 into a working-class Catholic family in [[Derry]], the eldest of seven children of Anne "Annie" (née Doherty), a seamstress, and Samuel Hume, a former soldier and shipyard worker.<ref>{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=92bJlWbPeKMC&q=John+Hume+Anne+Doherty|title = Who's who in the World|isbn = 9780837911106|author1 = Marquis|year = 1990| publisher=Marquis Who's Who |access-date = 19 September 2020|archive-date = 23 September 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210923144853/https://books.google.com/books?id=92bJlWbPeKMC&q=John+Hume+Anne+Doherty|url-status = live}}</ref> He had a mostly [[Irish Catholics|Irish Catholic]] background, though his surname derived from one of his great-grandfathers, a [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[Presbyterianism#Scotland|Presbyterian]] who migrated to [[County Donegal]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Ceasefire: It's all just coming together for the fixer: John Hume risked all when he met Sinn Fein. Now there's talk of a Nobel Peace Prize. Cal McCrystal reports|first=Cal|last=McCrystal|date=4 September 1994|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ceasefire-its-all-just-coming-together-for-the-fixer-john-hume-risked-all-when-he-met-sinn-fein-now-theres-talk-of-a-nobel-peace-prize-cal-mccrystal-reports-1446738.html|access-date=3 November 2017|archive-date=20 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220175724/http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ceasefire-its-all-just-coming-together-for-the-fixer-john-hume-risked-all-when-he-met-sinn-fein-now-theres-talk-of-a-nobel-peace-prize-cal-mccrystal-reports-1446738.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Hume was among the first to benefit from the 1947 Education Act.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=Stephen |title=John Hume. The Persuader |publisher=Gill Books |year=2023 |isbn=9780717196081 |location=Dublin}}</ref>{{rp|9}} which in Northern Ireland "revolutionised  access to secondary and further education".<ref name=":15">{{Cite book |last=Wichert |first=Sabine |title=Northern Ireland Since 1945 |publisher=Longman |year=1991 |isbn=0-582-02392-0 |location=London |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|45}} It provided him with scholarships, first to attend [[St Columb's College]], a fee-paying [[grammar school]], and then [[St Patrick's College, Maynooth]]. This was the leading Catholic [[seminary]] in Ireland and a recognised college of the [[National University of Ireland]]. Among his teachers was [[Tomás Ó Fiaich]].<ref name="White 1984 29">{{cite book |last=White |first=Barry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ta2CAAAAIAAJ&q=%22john+hume%22+teacher+%22%C3%93+Fiaich%22 |title=John Hume, Statesman of the Troubles |publisher=Blackstaff Press |year=1984 |isbn=9780856403279 |page=29 |access-date=19 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923144852/https://books.google.com/books?id=ta2CAAAAIAAJ&q=%22john+hume%22+teacher+%22%C3%93+Fiaich%22 |archive-date=23 September 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Ó Fiaich's colleague, [[Monsignor]] [[Brendan Devlin]] recalls that the future [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinal]] and [[Primate of All Ireland]]  turned his student (with whom he spoke in [[Irish language|Irish]]) towards the local history of [[Ulster]]. Devlin believes that, being a Derry man Hume "didn't need much pushing".<ref name=":7" />{{rp|17}}<blockquote>You begin to ask questions ... how did this come around. I grew up in a city surrounded by battlements. Everything inside the battlement was Protestant and everything in the slums was Catholic. Is this normal in the city? Is this a normal city? And if you have any brains at all you begin to find out it is not. You know, it's not normal and the government of the city is [[Gerrymandering|gerrymandered]]. My crowd is getting no show at all. There must be a reason for this. And, of course, John got into all that.<ref name=":7" />{{rp|19}}</blockquote>Hume did not complete his clerical studies but graduated in 1958 with a degree in French and history. In 1958, he returned home to his native Derry, where he became a teacher at his Alma mater, [[St Columb's College]], later, in 1964, earning an MA from Maynooth with a thesis exploring the conditions that drove Derry's principal export in the 19th century, emigrants.<ref>Hume, John (2002) ''[[iarchive:derrybeyondwalls0000hume/page/n1/mode/2up|Derry Beyond the Walls: Social and Economic Aspects of the Growth of Derry]]'', Ulster Historical foundation, Belfast. {{ISBN|978-1903688243}}</ref>