The former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, has died of “a rare heart condition”. He had left politics shortly before the recent Northern Ireland Assembly elections. He was a devisive figure whose early life as a prominent member of the IRA was perhaps a necessary element in his making the Good Friday peace process work.
He had grown up in Derry/Londonderry at a time when the Unionist/Protestant majority had instituted policies which repressed and disadvantaged the Republican/Catholic minority. He took part in the civil rights movement that rapidly developed into “the Troubles”. He became a member of the IRA and in 1972 was convicted in the Irish Republic of IRA activity, having been caught with a car containing explosives and 5000 rounds of ammunition. When the IRA rearmed in the 1980s, he is widely believed to have been the Chief of Staff of the IRA.
In the 1990s he played a pivotal role in the behind the contacts between the IRA and the British government. He had realized that the goals of the Republican side could be better achieved through the political process, taking inspiration from the example of Nelson Mandela. The agreement forces a power-sharing government of at least the two largest parties in the Assembly. Political power, which had been removed from the essentially corrupt and jerrymandered Stormont administrations, was again devolved. After some instability, Sinn Fein agreed to share power with the ultra-unionist Democratic Unionist Party. An unlikely working arrangement developed between McGuinness and Ian Paisley, the DUP leader. They appeared to have a real friendship, the pair were nicknamed “The Chuckle Brothers” after a British comedy duo.
In his later years, he became the elder statesman of Irish politics. The reconcilliation brought about by the peace process was reinforced by his meeting as Deputy First Minister with the Queen. She had lost close relatives in a boat bombing in the Irish Republic during “the Troubles”. He was a central figure in gaining peace but remains unforgiven by many of those affected by IRA violence.
BBC Obituary
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