MUNCIE, Ind. - Despite many skeptics, Northern Ireland Unionist Party leader David Trimble remains optimistic details can be worked out in the peace agreement reached last year in his troubled homeland.

Trimble spoke Wednesday at Ball State University saying he would not discuss details of talks, now deadlocked, on how to implement the agreement. The agreement earned him and Roman Catholic politician John Hume the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize.

"I don’t think the agreement is perfect and final - life is not like that," said Trimble. "But I believe we will work through it."

Trimble confined most of his remarks to explaining his views on the historical aspects of the longstanding conflict in Northern Ireland. To blame those problems all on religious reasons, as many have, is incorrect, he said.

"Religion is a factor, but it is not a religious dispute," he said. "It is better to view it as a dispute between different national identities."

Irish Catholics have long wanted the territory to become part of the Republic of Ireland, which gained independence from Great Britain in 1921. Protestants, like Trimble, have wished to stay part of the U.K.

Because religion is not as important to society as it used to be, the longstanding conflict has more to do with people in a single geographical area who feel more closely aligned to either the U.K. or the Republic of Ireland, said Trimble.

The Good Friday accord of last year was a step forward because Irish Nationalists realized the legitimacy of Northern Ireland as being part of the U.K., he said.

"This is separate from the idea that the people have different national identities," he said.

The agreement allows the right of Irish Catholics to identify themselves as having a different national identity and to express their cultural differences.

Although talks are currently stalled to implement portions of the 1998 accord, Trimble remains optimistic.

"I think we did lay out the template for that agreement," he said.

Trimble said the most monumental task before his countrymen after decades of violence is the integration of society. He noted that many people, including himself, have had friends or family members killed during the dispute. Many of the murderers were never arrested and often still live close-by.

"There’s a lot of hurt caused by people over the years on both sides, that will not disappear quickly," he said.

Trimble was scheduled to brief the White House's deputy national security adviser, Jim Steinberg, in Washington on Friday. His appearance in Muncie was sponsored by the Ball State Town and Gown Conversations program.

By Nancy Prater, Communications Manager