Martin McGuinness

James Martin Pacelli McGuinness (Irish: Séamus Máirtín Pacelli Mag Aonghusa;[1] 23 May 1950 – 21 March 2017) was an Irish republican Sinn Féin politician who was the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to January 2017.[2] A former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader, McGuinness was the MP for Mid Ulster from 1997 until his resignation in 2013.[3][4] Like all Sinn Féin MPs, McGuinness abstained from participation in the Westminster Parliament. Following the St Andrews Agreement and the Assembly election in 2007, he became deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on 8 May 2007, with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley becoming First Minister. On 5 June 2008 he was re-appointed as deputy First Minister to serve alongside Peter Robinson, who succeeded Paisley as First Minister.[5] McGuinness previously served as Minister of Education in the Northern Ireland Executive between 1999 and 2002. He was Sinn Féin's candidate for President of Ireland in the 2011 election.[6][7][8]

Martin McGuinness
Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland
In office
8 May 2007 – 9 January 2017*
Preceded byMark Durkan
Succeeded byMichelle O'Neill
Minister of Education
In office
2 December 1999 – 14 October 2002
First MinisterDavid Trimble
Reg Empey (Acting)
Deputy First MinisterSeamus Mallon
Mark Durkan
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byCaitríona Ruane
Parliamentary Representation
Member of the Legislative Assembly
for Foyle
In office
6 May 2016 – 26 January 2017
Preceded byMaeve McLaughlin
Succeeded byElisha McCallion
Member of the Legislative Assembly
for Mid Ulster
In office
25 June 1998 – 6 May 2016
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byLinda Dillon
Member of Parliament
for Mid Ulster
In office
1 May 1997 – 2 January 2013
Preceded byWilliam McCrea
Succeeded byFrancie Molloy
Majority15,363 (37.6%)
Personal details
Born
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness

(1950-05-23)23 May 1950
Derry, Northern Ireland
Died21 March 2017(2017-03-21) (aged 66)
Derry, Northern Ireland
NationalityIrish
Spouse(s)
Bernadette Canning
(
m. 1974)
Children4
*John O'Dowd served as Acting dFM from 20 September 2011 to 31 October 2011 while McGuinness campaigned in the 2011 Irish presidential election.

Working alongside US Special Envoy George Mitchell, McGuinness was also one of the main architects of the Good Friday Agreement which formally cemented the Northern Ireland peace process.[9]

On 9 January 2017, McGuinness resigned as deputy First Minister in a protest over the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal.[10] He announced on 19 January that he would not be standing for re-election to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 2 March 2017 election due to ill health. He reportedly suffered from amyloidosis, a condition that attacks the vital organs, and retired shortly before his death on 21 March 2017, aged 66.[11][12]

Provisional IRA activity

McGuinness acknowledged that he was a former IRA member, but stated that he left the IRA in 1974.[13] He originally joined the Official IRA, unaware of the split at the December 1969 Army Convention, switching to the Provisional IRA soon after. By the start of 1972, at the age of 21, he was second-in-command of the IRA in Derry, a position he held at the time of Bloody Sunday, when 14 civil rights protesters were killed in the city by British soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment.[14][15]

During the Saville Inquiry into the events of that day, Paddy Ward stated he had been the leader of the Fianna, the youth wing of the IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday. He said that McGuinness and an anonymous IRA member gave him bomb parts that morning. He said that his organisation intended to attack city centre premises in Derry on the same day. In response, McGuinness said the statements were "fantasy", while Gearóid Ó hEára (formerly Gerry O'Hara), a Derry Sinn Féin councillor, stated that he and not Ward was the Fianna leader at the time.[16]

The inquiry concluded that, although McGuinness was "engaged in paramilitary activity" at the time of Bloody Sunday and had probably been armed with a Thompson submachine gun, there was insufficient evidence to make any finding other than they were "sure that he did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire".[17]

McGuinness negotiated alongside Gerry Adams with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Willie Whitelaw, in 1972. In 1973, he was convicted by the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court, after being arrested near a car containing 250 pounds (110 kg) of explosives and nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition. He refused to recognise the court, and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. In court, he declared his membership of the Provisional IRA without equivocation: "We have fought against the killing of our people... I am a member of Óglaigh na hÉireann and very, very proud of it".[18]

After his release, and another conviction in the Republic of Ireland for IRA membership, he became increasingly prominent in Sinn Féin, the political wing of the republican movement. He was in indirect contact with British intelligence during the 1981 hunger strikes, and again in the early 1990s.[19] He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont in 1982, representing Londonderry. He was the second candidate elected after John Hume. As with all elected members of Sinn Féin and the SDLP, he did not take up his seat.[20] On 9 December 1982, McGuinness, Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison were banned from entering Great Britain under the Prevention of Terrorism Act by the Home Secretary, William Whitelaw.[21]

In August 1993, he was the subject of a two-part special by The Cook Report, a Central TV investigative documentary series presented by Roger Cook. It accused him of continuing involvement in IRA activity, of attending an interrogation and of encouraging Frank Hegarty, an informer, to return to Derry from a safe house in England. Hegarty's mother Rose appeared on the programme to tell of telephone calls to McGuinness and of Hegarty's subsequent murder. McGuinness denied her account and denounced the programme saying "I have never been in the IRA. I don't have any sway over the IRA".[22]

In 2005, Michael McDowell, the Irish Tánaiste, stated McGuinness, along with Gerry Adams and Martin Ferris, were members of the seven-man IRA Army Council.[23] McGuinness denied this, saying he was no longer an IRA member. Experienced Troubles journalist Peter Taylor presented further apparent evidence of McGuinness's role in the IRA in his documentary Age of Terror, shown in April 2008.[24] In his documentary, Taylor alleges that McGuinness was the head of the IRA's Northern Command and had advance knowledge of the IRA's 1987 Remembrance Day bombing, which left 12 people dead.[25]

Chief negotiator and Minister of Education

He became Sinn Féin's chief negotiator in the Northern Ireland peace process negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement. At the time of his death, former US President Bill Clinton noted that McGuinness was the one who personally oversaw the Agreement's arms decommissioning phase.[26] Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also acknowledged the leading role which McGuinness had in ensuring the Agreement would be enforced.[27]

He was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996 representing Foyle. Having contested Foyle unsuccessfully at the 1983, 1987 and 1992 Westminster elections,[28][29][30] he became MP for Mid Ulster in 1997 and after the Agreement was concluded, was returned as a member of the Assembly for the same constituency. He was nominated by his party for a ministerial position in the power-sharing executive, where he became Minister of Education. One of his controversial acts as Minister of Education was his decision to scrap the 11-plus exam, which he had failed as a child.[31] He was re-elected to the Westminster Parliament in 2001, 2005 and 2010.

In May 2003, transcripts of telephone calls between McGuinness and British officials including Mo Mowlam, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, were published in a biography of McGuinness entitled From Guns to Government by Kathryn Johnston and Liam Clarke. The tapes had been made by MI5 and the authors of the book were arrested under the Official Secrets Act. The conversations showed an easy and friendly relationship between McGuinness and Powell. He joked with Powell about unionist MPs while Mowlam referred to him as "babe" and discussed her difficulties with Blair. In another transcript, he praised Bill Clinton to Gerry Adams.[32]

St Andrews Agreement and deputy First Minister
McGuinness, Ian Paisley, and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond in 2008
United States President Barack Obama with Peter Robinson and McGuinness in March 2009

In the weeks following the St Andrews Agreement, the four biggest parties—the DUP, Sinn Féin, the UUP and the SDLP—indicated their choice of ministries in the Executive and nominated members to fill them. The Assembly convened on 8 May 2007 and Paisley and McGuinness were nominated as First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively. On 12 May Sinn Féin agreed to take up three places on the Northern Ireland Policing Board, and nominated three MLAs to take them.[33][34]

On 8 December 2007, while visiting President of the United States George W. Bush in the White House with the Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley, McGuinness said to the press, "Up until the 26 March this year, Ian Paisley and I never had a conversation about anything—not even about the weather—and now we have worked very closely together over the last seven months and there's been no angry words between us.... This shows we are set for a new course."[35][36]

2011 Irish presidential campaign
Main article: 2011 Irish presidential election

On 16 September 2011 McGuinness was announced as the Sinn Féin candidate in the 2011 Irish presidential election.[37][38] In the election held on 27 October, McGuinness placed third in the first preference vote, behind Michael D. Higgins and Seán Gallagher.[39]

McGuinness was the only candidate ineligible to vote in the election as, although an Irish citizen, he was not ordinarily resident in the Republic of Ireland.[40] Following his defeat, McGuinness formally returned to the role of deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on 31 October.[41]

Resignation from the House of Commons

On 30 December 2012 McGuinness announced that he had formally resigned as the MP for Mid-Ulster stating "I have served formal notice of my resignation from the position of MP for Mid-Ulster with immediate effect. This is in line with my party's commitment to end double jobbing."[42] To do this, he was made Steward of the Manor of Northstead on 2 January 2013 by Chancellor George Osborne, making him an employee of the Crown and thus ineligible for membership of the House of Commons.[43][44]

Resignation as deputy First Minister
Main article: Renewable Heat Incentive scandal

In November 2016, a scandal came to light surrounding the Renewable Heat Incentive, an energy incentive championed by Arlene Foster when she was Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Incentives in 2012. The incentive would cost the Northern Ireland Executive £480m over 20 years, and was marred by allegations of fraud, which were not acknowledged or acted upon by Foster or the DUP.[45] McGuinness and others in Sinn Féin called for Foster (now First Minister) to step aside to allow for independent inquiries, but Foster refused.[46][47] Foster made a statement before the Assembly on 19 December without McGuinness' approval (as required under the power-sharing agreement), resulting in Sinn Féin and the opposition parties all walking out of the Assembly.[48]

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams indicated on 8 January 2017 that McGuinness could resign, thus vacating both his and Foster's offices, if Foster did not agree to temporarily step aside to allow an independent inquiry.[49] McGuinness resigned the following day; in his statements to the press, he said "Today is the right time to call a halt to the DUP's arrogance", and said that Foster had a "clear conflict of interest" in the affair.[10] Another reason cited for his resignation was the decision by DUP Minister for Communities Paul Givan to remove £50,000 in funding from the Liofa Gaeltacht Bursary scheme, a yearly programme that allowed 100 school-age children to travel to the Donegal Gaeltacht to learn the Irish language.[50] Sinn Féin refused to nominate a successor to McGuinness before 16 January, resulting in the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, James Brokenshire, calling for new elections scheduled for 2 March.[51] McGuinness subsequently announced that he would not run for re-election, due to ill health.[52]

Personal life

One of McGuinness's middle names, Pacelli, is after Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli).[53]

McGuinness attended first St. Eugene's Primary School and later the Christian Brothers technical college, leaving school at the age of 15.[54]

McGuinness married Bernadette Canning in 1974; they had four children, two girls and two boys.[55] He was a fan of the Derry Gaelic football and hurling teams[56] and played both sports when he was younger.[56] He grew up just 50 metres from Celtic Park, the home of Derry's Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).[56] His older brother Tom played Gaelic football for Derry.[56] He supported Derry City F.C. where his younger brother Paul played for the Candystripes.[57]

McGuinness supported Manchester United from the age of eight.[58] McGuinness also had an interest in cricket – sometimes extending his support to the England cricket team, as well as that of Ireland.[59]

In March 2019, McGuinness was posthumously awarded a certificate of honour by mayor of San Francisco London Breed for his "courageous service in the military." The nomination had been made by the United Irish Societies who had appointed him honorary marshal in the St. Patrick's Day parade.[60] Breed apologized two days later following controversy.[61]

Health concerns and death
The funeral procession of McGuinness. Coffin bearers include Gerry Adams, Michelle O'Neill and Mary Lou McDonald

McGuinness was a member of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, which meant that he did not drink alcohol.[62]

In December 2016, McGuinness was advised against making a planned visit to China on medical grounds,[52] initially announcing that this was due to "unforeseen personal circumstances."[63] After subsequent tests, he was told that he was suffering from "a very serious illness."[52] McGuinness and Sinn Féin declined to give details of his illness to the media.[64] In January 2017, The Irish Times disclosed that McGuinness was suffering from amyloidosis, a rare incurable disease that affects organs. McGuinness complained that the Times had breached his privacy and that the paper had inaccurately reported the condition as genetic, thereby causing distress to his loved ones.[65]

On 6 March 2017 McGuinness was hospitalised at Derry's Altnagelvin Area Hospital due to ill health.[66] He died on 21 March, at the age of 66.[67][68][69]

See also

References
  1. "Ag cur Gaeilge ar ais i mbéal an phobail – Fórógra Shinn Féin do na Toghcháin Westminster" (Press release) (in Irish). Sinn Féin press release. 22 April 2005. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  2. About the Department Archived 22 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister.
  3. "Profile: Martin McGuinness". News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  4. "Martin McGuinness resigns as MP for Mid-Ulster". RTÉ.ie. 30 December 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  5. "Robinson is new NI first minister", BBC News, 5 June 2008. Retrieved 5 June 2008
  6. "Martin McGuinness set to be SF Áras candidate". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 16 September 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  7. GrabOne daily deals (18 September 2011). "McGuinness: My pay will be €35k, I'll be people's president". The Irish Independent. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  8. Simpson, Mark (17 September 2011). "Martin McGuinness: Paramilitary to politician to president?". BBC. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  9. "Former US President Bill Clinton pays tribute to 'courageous' Martin McGuinness". The Irish Post. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  10. "Martin McGuinness resigns as NI deputy first minister". BBC News. 9 January 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  11. Henry McDonald. "Martin McGuinness quits politics to recover from serious illness | Politics". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  12. "Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness dies aged 66". BBC.
  13. Henry McDonald IRA victim's brother says Martin McGuinness has blood on his hands The Guardian 12 October 2011
  14. "BBC News – NORTHERN IRELAND – McGuinness confirms IRA role". New.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  15. "CAIN: [Widgery Report] Report of the Tribunal appointed to inquire into events on Sunday, 30 January 1972". ulst.ac.uk.
  16. John Innes, "McGuinness is named as bomb runner", The Scotsman, 21 October 2003.
  17. "Report of The Bloody Sunday Inquiry – Volume I – Chapter 3". Bloody Sunday Inquiry. 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 24 August 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010. 3.119 in the course of investigating the activities of the Provisional and Official IRA on the day, we considered at some length allegations that Martin McGuinness, at that time the Adjutant of the Derry Brigade or Command of the Provisional IRA, had engaged in paramilitary activity during the day. In the end we were left in some doubt as to his movements on the day. Before the soldiers of Support Company went into the Bogside he was probably armed with a Thompson sub-machine gun, and though it is possible that he fired this weapon, there is insufficient evidence to make any finding on this, save that we are sure that he did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire.
  18. Taylor, Peter (1997). Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 152–53. ISBN 0-7475-3818-2.
  19. "Setting the Record Straight | Sinn Féin". Sinnfein.ie. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  20. Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government by Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston (ISBN 1-84018-725-5), pages 152–153
  21. Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government by Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston (ISBN 1-84018-725-5), page 155
  22. Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government by Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston (ISBN 1-84018-725-5), page 222
  23. Harding, Thomas (21 February 2005). "Adams and McGuinness named as IRA leaders". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  24. Age of Terror, BBC News, 21 April 2008
  25. "BBC NEWS – UK – Who knew about Enniskillen plans?". News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  26. "Statement from President Clinton on the Passing of Martin McGuinness". Clintonfoundation.org. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  27. "Tony Blair on Martin McGuinness - Good Friday Agreement could never have been achieved 'without Martin's leadership and courage'". Derrynow.com. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  28. "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  29. "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  30. "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  31. McGuinness: Let's work together BBC News, 4 December 1999
  32. "Martin McGuinness Wiretap Transcripts". Cryptome.org. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  33. Wilford, Rick; Wilson, Robin. "Devolution Monitoring Programme 2006–08" (PDF). Queens University Belfast. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  34. Lansford, Tom (2012). Political Handbook of the World 2012. SAGE. pp. 1138–1139. ISBN 978-1-6087-1995-2.
  35. Paisley and McGuinness in US trip BBC News, 3 December 2007
  36. Martina Purdy 'Charming' ministers woo president BBC News, 8 December 2007
  37. McDonald, Henry (16 September 2011). "Martin McGuinness to run for Irish presidency". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  38. "Martin McGuinness to run for president of Ireland". The Daily Telegraph. London. 17 September 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  40. "McGuinness unable to vote for himself". Irish Independent. 28 October 2011.
  41. "Martin McGuinness returns as deputy first minister". BBC News. 31 October 2011.
  42. "Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness resigns as Mid-Ulster MP", BBC News
  43. "McGuinness awarded British title". The Irish Times.
  44. "Manor of Northstead". HM Treasury. 2 January 2013. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  45. Macauley, Conor (9 November 2016). "Renewable Heat Incentive scheme: Whistleblower 'ignored' after reporting abuse claims". BBC News.
  46. "Sinn Féin to table motion calling on Northern Irish First Minister to stand aside". newstalk.com. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  47. "RHI scandal: Foster rejects Sinn Fein proposal to step aside during probe". Newsletter.co.uk.
  48. Gordon, Gareth (20 December 2016). "Robin Newton: 'Concerns recognised' over RHI statement". BBC News.
  49. "RHI scandal: Gerry Adams says Sinn Féin will act over fiasco". BBC News. 8 January 2017.
  50. "Irish language bursary funding 'found' says Paul Givan". BBC News. 12 January 2017.
  51. "Elections to be held in NI on 2 March". BBC News. 16 January 2017.
  52. Dominiczak, Peter (19 January 2017). "Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness says 'very serious illness' has forced him to quit frontline politics". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  53. "Obituary: Martin McGuinness". BBC News. 21 March 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  54. Woodward, Will (13 February 2001). "McGuinness strives for top marks". Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  55. Hardliners vent their fury at Martin McGuinness The Guardian, 14 March 2009
  56. McGuinness, Martin (26 August 2001). "Fanzone – Martin McGuinness". Irish Independent. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  57. "My team". The Guardian. London, UK. Archived from the original on 9 December 2007.
  58. "Martin McGuinness: I brought Ulster luck in the '99 Euro final". The Belfast Telegraph.
  59. Kingsley, Patrick (25 January 2012). "Martin McGuinness: How I fell in love with cricket". The Guardian. London.
  60. "S.F. Issues Posthumous Certificate of Honor for Irish Politician with Ties to IRA - 03/10/2019". SF Weekly. 11 March 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  61. "McGuinness award apology 'not enough'". BBC News. 12 March 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  62. Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government by Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston (ISBN 1-84018-725-5)
  63. "Martin McGuinness pulls out of China trip". 3 December 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  64. "SF silent on McGuinness' illness". Newsletter. 21 December 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  65. "Martin McGuinness slams Irish Times for revealing medical diagnosis". IrishCentral. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  66. "Martin McGuinness: Former Northern Irish First Minister seriously ill in hospital". The Independent. 6 March 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  67. "Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness dies aged 66". BBC. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  68. "Death announced of Martin McGuinness". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 21 March 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  69. "'McGuinness's refusal to live in past is a great lesson for us all' - Clinton leads the tributes". Irish Independent. 22 March 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2017.

Further reading
  • Clarke, Johnston; Clarke, Liam. (2003). Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government. Mainstream. ISBN 978-1-84018-725-0
Northern Ireland Assembly (1982)
New assembly Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Derry
1982–1986		 Assembly abolished
Northern Ireland Forum
New forum Member of the Northern Ireland Forum
for Foyle
1996–1998		 Forum abolished
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William McCrea		 Member of Parliament
for Mid Ulster
1997–2013		 Succeeded by
Francie Molloy
Northern Ireland Assembly
New assembly Member of the Legislative Assembly
for Mid Ulster
1999–2016		 Succeeded by
Linda Dillon
Preceded by
Maeve McLaughlin		 Member of the Legislative Assembly
for Foyle
2016–2017		 Succeeded by
Elisha McCallion
Political offices
New office Minister of Education
1999–2002		 Vacant
Office suspended
Title next held by
Caitríona Ruane
Vacant
Office suspended
Title last held by
Mark Durkan		 Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland
2007–2017		 Vacant
Office suspended
Title next held by
Michelle O'Neill
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