I got into massive rows with John Hume when I was editor of the Derry Journal.

He basically made the same speech everywhere he went, complete with soundbites that everyone in our office could quote verbatim… “The land of Ireland is united, it is the people who are divided”, “Let’s spill our sweat, not our blood”, “All conflict is about difference. Difference of religion, difference of race, difference of nationality”.

The arguments arose when he thought this speech should be the lead story because it was delivered in Washington, Brussels or London.

My argument was it didn’t matter whether a particular audience was hearing it for the first time – the readers in Derry had heard it all before.

Patrick Murphy: Welcome to the second Plantation of Ulster

Pat McArt: We all pay for the choice Americans made in electing Trump

But looking back now, I see he had a point.

Hume told me that one thing he had learned from his days as a school teacher was that repetition was vital for learning, for the kids to almost understand a subject by osmosis.

He thought the same applied to politics.

Busy people had to hear the same things repeated time after time so that they took it in without really being aware of it.

He was probably right because he was, without question, the most successful politician this island has produced since Charles Stewart Parnell or Daniel O’Connell.

© The Irish News