{UAH} Martin McGuinness, former deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, dies
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3:18 AM |
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Martin McGuinness, the former IRA chief of staff and a key figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, has died just two months after stepping down as deputy first minister.
The 66-year-old Irish republican died after a short illness in Derry's Altnagelvin hospital surrounded by his family. He had a rare genetic disease caused by deposits of abnormal protein – amyloid – in tissues and organs.
Gerry Adams, his closest political ally, confirmed that McGuinness had died. Speaking on Tuesday morning, Adams said: "Throughout his life, Martin showed great determination, dignity and humility and it was no different during his short illness. He was a passionate republican who worked tirelessly for peace and reconciliation and for the reunification of his country."
The Sinn Féin president added: "On behalf of republicans everywhere we extend our condolences to Bernie, Fiachra, Emmettt, Fionnuala and Grainne, grandchildren and the extended McGuinness family."
Tributes and reaction were swiftly issued in Northern Ireland and beyond. To many he was seen as a peacemaker, a man who, having once argued that the British presence in Ireland could only be ended by armed struggle, became a passionate believer in compromise with the unionist community.
But some still regard him primarily as a key figure in the IRA terrorist group that killed more than 1,500 people before Sinn Féin, its political wing, embraced the compromises its peaceful rivals in the Social Democratic and Labour party had articulated from the 1960s onwards.
Tony Blair, who was British prime minister during the Good Friday negotiations, acknowledged that those who had lost loved ones would be unable to forget the past.
But he added: "For those of us able finally to bring about the Northern Irelandpeace agreement, we know we could never have done it without Martin's leadership, courage and quiet insistence that the past should not define the future."
He continued: "Once he became the peacemaker, he became it wholeheartedly and with no shortage of determined opposition to those who wanted to carry on the war. I will remember him therefore with immense gratitude for the part he played in the peace process, and with genuine affection for the man I came to know and admire for his contribution to peace."
From across Northern Ireland's political divide, Democratic Unionist leader and former Stormont first minister Arlene Foster offered her condolences and said that the news would come as a shock to many.
Foster said: "He was pivotal in bringing the republican movement towards a position of using peaceful and democratic means."
Sending her thoughts to his family, she added that history would record differing views on McGuinness but he had played a pivotal role in bringing the republican movement toward peace.
Theresa May said: "While I can never condone the path he took in the earlier part of his life, Martin McGuinness ultimately played a defining role in leading the republican movement away from violence. In doing so, he made an essential and historic contribution to the extraordinary journey of Northern Ireland from conflict to peace.
"While we certainly didn't always see eye-to-eye even in later years, as deputy first minister for nearly a decade he was one of the pioneers of implementing cross-community power-sharing in Northern Ireland. He understood both its fragility and its precious significance and played a vital part in helping to find a way through many difficult moments.
"At the heart of it all was his profound optimism for the future of Northern Ireland – and I believe we should all hold fast to that optimism today."
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, tweeted: "Martin McGuinness played a huge role in bringing about peace in Northern Ireland. He was a great family man and my thoughts are with them."
In a tribute that reflected the unlikely friendship McGuinness formed with then Democratic Unionist party leader Ian Paisley during his time in office, a Twitter account in the name of Paisley's son Kyle said: "Very sorry to hear about the passing of Martin McGuinness. Look back with pleasure on the remarkable year he and my father spent in office together and the great good they did together.
"Will never forget his ongoing care for my father in his ill-health."
The president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, led tributes from the Republic, saying McGuinness's death left a gap that would be hard to fill.
"The world of politics and the people across this island will miss the leadership he gave, shown most clearly during the difficult times of the peace process, and his commitment to the values of genuine democracy that he demonstrated in the development of the institutions in Northern Ireland," he said.
The Irish taoiseach, Enda Kenny, said McGuinness's death marked "a significant loss", adding: "Not only did Martin come to believe that peace must prevail, he committed himself to working tirelessly to that end."
Writing for the Guardian, Blair's former adviser Alastair Campbell, who was also involved in the Good Friday talks, said: "Of course his terrorist past is a big part of his story. But so is the choice he made to leave it behind."
Others were less sympathetic to the former IRA man. On Good Morning Britain, Norman Tebbit, who was injured and whose wife was left permanently disabled in the 1984 Brighton bombing, called him "a coward who never atoned for his crimes" and said that "there can be no forgiveness without a confession of sins".
And the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries tweeted: "I hope God forgives this man and grants him a place in heaven – however, it will be hard for many to shed tears upon hearing this news."
McGuinness resigned as deputy first minister in the Northern Ireland assembly on 9 January, because of the refusal of the first minister, Arlene Foster, to stand down temporarily during an inquiry into a public energy scandal.
McGuinness's resignation triggered the collapse of the power-sharing government and the calling of new elections in which, he announced on 19 January, he would not be standing.
During his last press conference, McGuinness appeared frail and there had been reports in recent weeks that his condition had deteriorated severely. He was too ill in December to join a trade mission to China with Foster.
Married with four children, McGuinness was the IRA's chief of staff from 1979 until 1982 and ran the paramilitary movement when Lord Louis Mountbatten and 18 British soldiers were killed on the same day.
Alongside Gerry Adams, McGuinness courted Tony Blair from the moment the Labour leader won his landslide election in May 1997. The Sinn Féin leaders were able to negotiate concessions from the prime minister, ranging from early IRA prisoner releases to the controversial "on-the-runs" scheme, in which wanted republicans were given "letters of comfort" that appeared to offer them immunity from arrest or prosecution.
McGuinness struck up a close working relationship with Jonathan Powell, Blair's chief of staff, who also held backstage meetings with senior IRA figures in Belfast.
The snap election triggered by McGuinness's resignation resulted in Sinn Féin coming within one seat of the Democratic Unionists as the largest party in the assembly.
In the days after the result, McGuinness's health deteriorated and he had to be moved from his home in Derry, where he was receiving palliative care, to Altnagelvin hospital's high dependency unit.
After his liver failed, his wife, Bernie, posted a prayer on her Facebook page stating: "Things may look dark and bleak now, but I have faith that my dawn is coming. In Jesus name, amen!"
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