Circumstances give in reality to every political principle, its distinguishing colour, and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.

The basic facts of the situation are known and not open to dispute. Early life and education
Trimble was the son of William and Ivy Trimble and grew up in a lower-middle class Presbyterian home in Bangor on the County Down coast. B).

In 2006 he was made a life peer in the House of Lords and a year later left the UUP to join the Conservative Party. Trimble began his career as a Professor of Law at Queen's University Belfast in the 1970s during which time he began to get involved with the paramilitary-linked Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention in 1975 and joined the UUP in 1978 after the VPUP disbanded.