LONDON (AP) — David Trimble, a former Northern Ireland first minister who won the Nobel Peace Prize for being a key architect of the Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of conflict, has died, the Ulster Unionist Party said Monday. He was 77.

The party said in a statement on behalf of the Trimble family and the UUP that politician died earlier Monday “following a short illness.”

Trimble, who led the party from 1995 to 2005, jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998.

He was the Ulster Unionist Party's first leader in 30 years to meet with the Irish premier in Dublin. In 1997, Trimble became the first unionist leader to negotiate with Irish republican party Sinn Fein.

Keir Starmer, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, called Trimble “a towering figure of Northern Ireland and British politics" in a tweet Monday.