Good Friday Agreement architect David Trimble dies at 77

FILE PHOTO: Member of the House of Lords David Trimble walks outside Westminster as parliament discusses Brexit, sitting on a Saturday for the first time since the 1982 Falklands War, in London, Britain, October 19, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

BELFAST (Reuters) -David Trimble, the Northern Irish leader who steered the region's Protestant majority into an historic peace deal with their Catholic rivals that earned him a Nobel Peace Prize, has died aged 77, his family said on Monday.

Trimble, who became Northern Irish first minister in the power-sharing government that emerged from the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, played a key role in the accord that mostly ended three decades of bloodshed in the region.