Martin McGuinness | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) McGuinness in 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 8 May 2007 – 9 January 2017[a] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Peter Hain[b](As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland) Mark Durkan (2002) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Michelle O'Neill (2020) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of Education | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 2 December 1999 – 14 October 2002 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First Minister | David Trimble (FM) Seamus Mallon (dFM) Mark Durkan (dFM) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Office established | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Caitríona Ruane | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | James Martin Pacelli McGuinness (1950-05-23)23 May 1950 Derry, Northern Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 21 March 2017(2017-03-21) (aged 66) Derry, Northern Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Irish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Sinn Féin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Branch/service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Battles/wars | The Troubles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ^a John O'Dowd served as Acting dFM from 20 September 2011 to 31 October 2011 while McGuinness campaigned in the2011 Irish presidential election ^b During the periods of suspension of theNorthern Ireland Executive, theSecretaries of State for Northern Ireland assumed the responsibilities of the First Minister and deputy First Minister. The final Northern Ireland Secretary to act as First Minister was Peter Hain. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness (Irish:Séamus Máirtín Pacelli Mag Aonghusa;[1] 23 May 1950 – 21 March 2017) was anIrish republican politician and statesman forSinn Féin and a leader within theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) duringThe Troubles. He was thedeputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to January 2017.[2]
McGuinness served as theMember of Parliament (MP) forMid Ulster from1997 until his resignation in 2013.[3][4] Like all Sinn Féin MPs, McGuinness followedabstentionism in theWestminster Parliament. Working alongside US Special EnvoyGeorge Mitchell, McGuinness was also one of the main architects of theGood Friday Agreement which formally cemented theNorthern Ireland peace process and established theNorthern Ireland Assembly.[5]
In 1998, McGuinness was first elected as theMember of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) forMid Ulster. He served asMinister of Education in theNorthern Ireland Executive under First MinisterDavid Trimble from 1999 to 2002. Following theSt Andrews Agreement and the2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election, he became deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on 8 May 2007, with theDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) leaderIan Paisley becoming First Minister. In 2008 and 2016, he was reappointed as deputy First Minister to serve alongsidePeter Robinson andArlene Foster, respectively.[6] He was Sinn Féin's candidate forPresident of Ireland in the2011 Irish presidential election.[7][8][9]
In the2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election, McGuinness was elected as the MLA forFoyle. On 9 January 2017, McGuinness resigned as deputy First Minister in protest over theRenewable Heat Incentive scandal.[10] He announced on 19 January that he would not be standing for re-election in the2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election due to ill health. He reportedly suffered fromamyloidosis, a condition that attacks thevital organs, and retired shortly before his death on 21 March 2017, aged 66.[11][12]
McGuinness acknowledged that he was a former IRA member, but stated that he left the IRA in 1974.[13] He originally joined theOfficial IRA, unaware of the split at the December 1969 Army Convention, switching to theProvisional IRA soon after. By the start of 1972, at the age of 21, he was second-in-command of the IRA inDerry, a position he held at the time ofBloody Sunday on 30 January 1972, when thirteen civilians were shot and killed in the city by British soldiers of the1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment during a civil rights march, with a fourteenth victim dying four months later.[14][15]
During theSaville Inquiry into the events of that day, Paddy Ward stated he had been the leader of theFianna, 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 DerrySinn 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 aThompson 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 alongsideGerry Adams with theSecretary of State for Northern Ireland,Willie Whitelaw, in 1972. In 1973, he was convicted by theRepublic of Ireland'sSpecial 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 ofÓglaigh na hÉireann and very, very proud of it".[18]
After his release, and another conviction in the Republic of Ireland for IRA membership in 1974,[19] he became increasingly prominent in Sinn Féin, the political wing of therepublican movement. He was in indirect contact with British intelligence during the1981 hunger strikes, and again in the early 1990s.[20] He was elected to theNorthern Ireland Assembly atStormont in 1982, representingLondonderry. He was the second candidate elected afterSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leaderJohn Hume. As with all elected members of Sinn Féin and the SDLP, he did not take up his seat.[21] On 9 December 1982, McGuinness, Gerry Adams andDanny Morrison were banned from entering Great Britain under thePrevention of Terrorism Act by theHome Secretary, William Whitelaw.[22]
In August 1993, he was the subject of a two-part special byThe Cook Report, aCentral TV investigative documentary series presented byRoger Cook. It accused him of continuing involvement in IRA activity, of attending an interrogation and of encouraging Frank Hegarty, a British informer, to return to Derry from asafe 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".[23]
In 2005,Michael McDowell, the IrishTánaiste, stated McGuinness, along with Gerry Adams andMartin Ferris, were members of the seven-manIRA Army Council.[24] McGuinness denied this, saying he was no longer an IRA member. ExperiencedTroubles journalistPeter Taylor presented further apparent evidence of McGuinness's role in the IRA in his documentaryAge of Terror, shown in April 2008.[25] In his documentary, Taylor alleges that McGuinness was the head of theIRA's Northern Command and had advance knowledge of the IRA's 1987Remembrance Day bombing, which left 12 people dead.[26]
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He became Sinn Féin's chief negotiator in theNorthern Ireland peace process negotiations which led to theGood Friday Agreement. At the time of his death, former US PresidentBill Clinton noted that McGuinness was the one who personally oversaw the agreement's armsdecommissioning phase.[27] Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also acknowledged the leading role which McGuinness had in ensuring the agreement would be enforced.[28]
He was elected to theNorthern Ireland Forum in 1996 representingFoyle. Having contestedFoyle unsuccessfully at the 1983, 1987 and 1992 Westminster elections,[29][30][31] he became MP forMid Ulster in 1997 and after the agreement was concluded, was returned as a member of the Assembly for thesame constituency. He was nominated by his party for a ministerial position in thepower-sharing executive, where he became Minister of Education. One of his acts as Minister of Education was his decision to scrap the11-plus exam, which he had failed as a child.[32] 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 includingMo Mowlam, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, andJonathan Powell,Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, were published in a biography of McGuinness entitledFrom Guns to Government by Kathryn Johnston and Liam Clarke. The tapes had been made byMI5 and the authors of the book were arrested under theOfficial Secrets Act. The conversations showed an easy and friendly relationship between McGuinness and Powell. He joked with Powell aboutunionist MPs while Mowlam referred to him as "babe" and discussed her difficulties with Blair. In another transcript, he praised Bill Clinton to Gerry Adams.[33]
In the weeks following theSt Andrews Agreement, the four biggest parties—the DUP, Sinn Féin, theUlster Unionist Party 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 theNorthern Ireland Policing Board, and nominated three MLAs to take them.[34][35]
On 8 December 2007, while visiting President of the United StatesGeorge W. Bush in theWhite 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."[36][37]
On 16 September 2011 McGuinness was announced as the Sinn Féin candidate in the 2011 Irish presidential election.[38][39] In the election held on 27 October 2011, McGuinness received 243,030 first preference votes, placing third behindMichael D. Higgins (elected president) andSeán Gallagher. McGuinness had earned endorsements from Colm Meaney, Roma Downey, and Fionnula Flanagan among others; and had performed well considering Sinn Féin's position in the Republic at that time.[40]
McGuinness was the only candidate ineligible to vote in the election as, although anIrish citizen, he was not ordinarily a resident in theRepublic of Ireland.[41] Following the election, McGuinness formally returned to the role of deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on 31 October.[42]
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 enddouble jobbing."[43] To do this, he was madeSteward of the Manor of Northstead on 2 January 2013 by ChancellorGeorge Osborne, making him an employee of the Crown and thus ineligible for membership of the House of Commons.[44][45]
In November 2016, a scandal came to light surrounding the Renewable Heat Incentive, an energy incentive championed byArlene Foster when she wasMinister 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 (McGuinness' and Sinn Féin's partner in government).[46] McGuinness and others in Sinn Féin called for Foster to step aside as First Minister to allow for independent inquiries, but she refused.[47][48] She 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.[49]
Sinn Féin PresidentGerry 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.[50] 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 DUPMinister for CommunitiesPaul Givan to remove £50,000 in funding from theLíofa Gaeltacht Bursary scheme, a yearly programme that allowed 100 school-age children to travel to theDonegal Gaeltacht to learn theIrish language.[51] Sinn Féin refused to nominate a successor to McGuinness before 16 January, resulting in theSecretary of State for Northern Ireland,James Brokenshire, calling fornew elections scheduled for 2 March.[52] McGuinness subsequently announced that he would not run for re-election, due to ill health.[53]
McGuinness's mother was fromDonegal in the northwest of Ireland.[54] She moved to Derry to work in a shirt factory.[54] It was in Derry that she met McGuinness's father.[54]
One of McGuinness's middle names, Pacelli, is afterPope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli).[55]
McGuinness attended St. Eugene's Primary School and later the Christian Brothers technical college, leaving school at the age of 15.[56]
McGuinness married Bernadette Canning in 1974; they had four children, two girls and two boys.[57] He was a fan of theDerryGaelic football andhurling teams[58] and played both sports when he was younger.[58] He grew up just 50 metres fromCeltic Park, the home of Derry'sGaelic Athletic Association.[58] His older brotherTom played Gaelic football for Derry.[58] He supportedDerry City F.C. where his younger brother Paul played for the Candystripes.[59]
McGuinness supportedManchester United from the age of eight.[60] McGuinness also had an interest incricket – sometimes extending his support to theEngland cricket team, as well as that ofIreland.[61]
In March 2019, McGuinness was posthumously awarded a certificate of honour by mayor of San FranciscoLondon Breed for his "courageous service in the military." The nomination had been made by theUnited Irish Societies who had appointed him honorary marshal in theSt. Patrick's Day parade.[62] Breed apologised two days later following controversy.[63]
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In December 2016, McGuinness was advised against making a planned visit to China on medical grounds,[53] initially announcing that this was due to "unforeseen personal circumstances."[64] After subsequent tests, he was told that he was suffering from "a very serious illness."[53] McGuinness and Sinn Féin declined to give details of his illness to the media.[65] In January 2017,The Irish Times disclosed that McGuinness was suffering fromamyloidosis, a rare incurable disease that affects the internal organs. McGuinness complained that theTimes had breached his privacy and that the paper had inaccurately reported the condition as genetic, thereby causing distress to his family.[66]
On 6 March 2017, McGuinness was hospitalised at Derry'sAltnagelvin Area Hospital due to ill health.[67] He died on 21 March, at the age of 66.[68][69][70]
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.
| Northern Ireland Assembly (1982) | ||
|---|---|---|
| New assembly | Member of theNorthern Ireland Assembly forLondonderry 1982–1986 | Assembly abolished |
| Northern Ireland Forum | ||
| New forum | Member of theNorthern Ireland Forum forFoyle 1996–1998 | Forum abolished |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forMid Ulster 1997–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Northern Ireland Assembly | ||
| New assembly | Member of the Legislative Assembly forMid Ulster 1999–2016 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of the Legislative Assembly forFoyle 2016–2017 | Succeeded by |
| 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 |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |