Obituary: Stephen Grimason, veteran journalist who broke news of the Good Friday Agreement live on television

Stephen Grimason was honoured in January for services to journalism. Photo: PA

Deaglán de Bréadún

Stephen Grimason, the former BBC Northern Ireland political editor who has died aged 67, was the first journalist to get a copy of the Good Friday Agreement as negotiations concluded in April 1998. It was a major scoop.

He was born William Stephen Grimason on March 27, 1957, into a Presbyterian family of four children at Lurgan, Co Armagh. After attending Lurgan College he took a course in journalism at the College of Business Studies in Belfast.

His got his first job with the Lurgan Mail and later moved to the Lisburn-based Ulster Star before becoming editor at 27 of the Banbridge Chronicle. He was believed to be the youngest person on the island to hold such a position at the time.

He went on to the now-defunct Sunday News in Belfast before moving into daily publication at the News Letter. After 12 years in newspapers, he took a job with BBC Northern Ireland. He covered some dark episodes during the Troubles and was the first reporter on the scene at Teebane, Co Tyrone, in January 1992 when eight men were killed and six injured in an IRA bombing after they had been repairing a British Army base in Omagh.

The high point of his career came at lunchtime on April 10, 1998, when an advance copy of the Good Friday Agreement was leaked to him in a brown envelope by a source close to the final negotiations at Castle Buildings on the Stormont Estate in Belfast. Concerned it might also be given to some other journalist, he quickly displayed it on live television to BBC presenter Noel Thompson with the words: “I have it in my hand, 67 pages.” As he said himself later: “You weren’t just breaking a story, you were making history.”

Grimason recalled afterwards how the principal chair of the talks, Senator George Mitchell, had requested journalists not to reveal the document if it were given to them in advance and he had been asked himself by the BBC what he would do if he got hold of it. “I said if they give it to me it’s because they want it out and if I don’t put it out they’re going to give it to somebody else — so it’s going out. And I think this was given to me as a means of pushing some of the doubters in the Ulster Unionist Party over the line,” he said.

​He moved on in 2001 to become director of communications with the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive created under the Agreement, a job he held until his retirement in 2016. Grimason suffered a major bereavement when his younger brother Darryl, who produced and presented wildlife, environmental and natural history programmes for the BBC, died at the age of 59 on December 22, 2022.

Last January 25, at a ceremony in Queen’s University Belfast, Grimason and former UTV political editor Ken Reid were each awarded the Chancellor’s Medal in formal recognition of their services to journalism — the first in their profession to receive such an accolade. Awarding the medals, vice-chancellor Professor Sir Ian Greer said: “Here at Queen’s we feel it is vital to recognise their incredible commitment and contribution to society.”

Reid and Grimason had both been diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses and it was a reflection of their sense of humour and resilience that they made a £50 (€58) bet with one another as to who would go first. After Grimason’s funeral, Reid was given the money in an envelope signed by his late friend and colleague and he immediately arranged for it to be spent on drinks for the bereaved family in Robert Stewart’s 400-year-old pub close to the church.

Away from work, Grimason was an enthusiastic golfer and a keen rugby and soccer fan who was a passionate supporter of Chelsea FC. His courage made him a potential role model for anyone in a similar health situation.

In an interview on Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme he said: “I’ve lost both my kidneys to kidney cancer. I am terminally ill, but what am I going to do? Sit and cry about it?”

A celebration of his life, led by Rev Willie Nixon, was held at Drumbeg Parish Church on the outskirts of Belfast last Wednesday where tributes were delivered by former Sky News journalist Gary Honeyford as well as Grimason’s son Chris, his sister Cherryl Holden and friend Joan Boyd.

Holding up the script of the eulogy which his lifelong friend had been very involved in writing, Honeyford repeated Grimason’s famous line about the Good Friday accord: “I have it in my hand, 67 pages.”

During the service, sympathies were expressed towards Grimason’s wife Yvonne, children Jennifer, Chris, Rachel and Jonathan, seven grandchildren, mother Jean and sister Cherryl.