Martin McGuinness ‘was there for all Republican families’

Martin McGuinness realised that.

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, reflected on the legacy of Martin McGuinness Tuesday following news of the former Irish Republican Army commander and Sinn Fein political leader’s death. Five years later, his time as deputy first minister ended when he resigned amid a breakdown in relations with unionist first Minister Arlene Foster over the costs of a renewable energy program.

The Guardian’s obituary notes: “The cuddly, chess-playing and fly-fishing grandfather figure that he presented in later life was real – but so too was the guerrilla hard man of the 1970s, who neither smoked nor drank, partly because he was a member of the Catholic Pioneer temperance group, but also to minimise the pressures that might break him under interrogation”.

Hundreds of mourners gathered in Northern Ireland last night to pay tribute to the former deputy first minister in a series of candlelit vigils following his death from a rare genetic condition.

Thousands are expected to bring parts of Derry to a standstill as people say farewell to one of its most famous sons.

He made an extraordinary transition from commanding IRA men to condemning other Irish republicans as “traitors” when they attacked the security forces.

Mr McGuinness was also implicated in the murder of Patrick Gillespie in 1990, who was forced to drive a booby-trapped van to an Army checkpoint while his family were held hostage.

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness divided opinion sharply throughout his life and continues to do so after his death.

West Belfast MP Paul Maskey told the crowd that Mr McGuinness was a man determined and committed to delivering a better future for all.

“Martin McGuinness, as Sinn Féin’s Chief Negotiator, played an important role in the Northern Ireland peace process negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement and peace on our Island”.

Secretary of State James Brokenshire yesterday spoke of his “challenging exchanges” with Mr McGuinness – and their shared love of cricket.

Among the litany of tributes, Mr Brokenshire said: “We had a number of challenging exchanges but he would always be very personally respectful and very personally thoughtful”.

Yet within a few years of making that stubborn vow, McGuinness was involved in covert contacts with British intelligence that led eventually to a truce, inter-party talks and the installation of the IRA icon in the heart of Northern Ireland’s government.

Mr Grimason added: “I said: ‘You’ve got to remember, Martin, that this [statement] is going to make you a very big target for the dissidents'”.

Buckingham Palace confirmed a private message will be conveyed to Mr McGuinness’s wife, Bernie.

Mr Adams visited Mr McGuinness’s family in the Bogside.

The sitting will not be a formal plenary session – sitting as such would have required that the first item of business was the election of a Speaker, something which could have caused a political row – but a “non-plenary sitting” called by the outgoing Speaker, Robin Newton.

McGuinness later left violence behind for politics.