Stephen Grimason: tributes paid to former BBC News NI political editor who broke the news of the Good Friday Agreement

Born in Lurgan, the highly respected journalist reported on some of the darkest moments of Northern Ireland's Troubles.

He is well remembered when, as BBC NI’s political editor, he was the first journalist to get a leaked copy of the Good Friday Agreement, holding it up on live TV proclaiming “I have it in my hand”.

Adam Smyth, the director of BBC Northern Ireland, said: "Stephen Grimason possessed the special talents that only the very best editors and correspondents exhibit - the audience always came away from his broadcasts feeling they knew and understood the political landscape better and they trusted what he had to say.

"Stephen's list of contacts and sources was so extensive he regularly seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else - including the politicians.

"His contribution to BBC Northern Ireland is deeply appreciated and we offer our sincerest condolences to Stephen's family."

Speaking in an interview with BBC Talkback in 2022, Mr Grimason said it was at school when his journalistic potential was first noticed.

He said some teachers were "pushing me in this direction because they were saying you can write pretty well". They also told him he was "nosy" and was "always causing trouble".

He started work in the Lurgan Mail in 1975 before moving to the Ulster Star in Lisburn where he combined news reporting with a role as sports editor.

He became editor of the Banbridge Chronicle at the age of 27. Then after 12 years in newspaper journalism, he applied for a job at the BBC in Northern Ireland.

"There were something like 300 of us (who applied) and two of us got jobs - so I must have bluffed my way rightly," he said of that time.

Mr Grimason left the BBC in 2001 to become Stormont's new director of communications, a role he held until 2016.

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Former UTV political editor Ken Reid, described Mr Grimason as “a dear friend”.

"He showed enormous courage against the odds right to very end. In over 40 years of friendship and rivalry we never exchanged a cross word. Lucky to have spent time with him in his last days.”

At the start of 2024, Ken Reid and Mr Grimason were honoured for services to journalism by Queen’s University Belfast by being presented with Chancellor’s Medals.

Mr Grimason’s younger brother Darryl, who was also a BBC journalist and presenter, passed away in December 2022 at his home in Dollingstown.

He previously had been a newspaper reporter, working for the Belfast Telegraph and also for the Morton Newspapers group of weekly papers which includes the Lurgan Mail and Carrick Times.

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