NICOLA Sturgeon joined political leaders in paying tribute to Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander turned peacemaker, who died yesterday.
The First Minister said McGuinness, like the late Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley, will be remembered for his commitment to bringing peace and reconciliation to Northern Ireland.
“I had the opportunity in recent years to get to know Martin through our work in the British Irish Council and Joint Ministerial Committee – his deep understanding of both the importance and fragility of the peace process, and also his optimism for the future, was obvious to all,” she said.
“While he had been unwell for a few months, his untimely death will still come as a shock to many and my thoughts and sympathies are with his wife, wider family and friends.”
Hundreds of people gathered in the veteran republican’s home city of Derry to accompany his body on his final journey home. An emotional Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said his long-time friend worked passionately for reconciliation in Ireland.
“We are very, very sad that we lost him overnight,” he said.
Crowds braved snow and sleet to accompany his coffin, draped in an Irish tricolour, from the funeral parlour to his home in the Bogside.
Another tricolour flew at half-mast near the Bogside’s landmark Free Derry Corner.
McGuinness died in Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry overnight after suffering from a rare heart condition. His death prompted the NI Assembly to be recalled today with his funeral being held in his home city tomorrow.
Prime Minister Theresa May, Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny, ex-US president Bill Clinton and former DUP First Ministers Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster all praised his contribution to the peace process.
Born in Derry in 1950, he was working as a butcher’s assistant when the Troubles began in the late 1960s. He joined the IRA in anger over the handling by the authorities of civil rights protesters.
By January 1972, when soldiers from the Parachute Regiment killed 14 people in Derry on what became known as Bloody Sunday, McGuinness was second in command of the IRA in the city. He rose to become a senior IRA commander but by the early 1990s began to realise paramilitary action would not bring about a United Ireland.
The shift helped established peace talks which ultimately lead to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the setting up of the power sharing Assembly at Stormont, where, as Sinn Fein leader, he eventually became deputy First Minister.
At Stormont he forged an unlikely alliance with Paisley, the fiercest critic of the republican movement, and the two old former foes became known as “the Chuckle Brothers”.
McGuinness stood down from his post in January in protest against the DUP’s handling of a green energy scandal, triggering a snap election.
In a statement, President of Ireland Michael D Higgins paid tribute to McGuinness saying he had made an “immense contribution to the advancement of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland”.
Higgins added: “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.
“As President of Ireland, I wish to pay tribute to his immense contribution to the advancement of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland – a contribution which has rightly been recognised across all shades of opinion.”
Prime Minister Theresa May said although she could 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”.
Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, said: “Sad to learn of sudden passing of Martin McGuinness. His contribution to peace in Northern Ireland will endure.”
But not all the comments yesterday were positive. Jim Allister, of the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice, said McGuinness had taken secrets about his IRA past to the grave.
He said: “My primary thoughts are with the victims of the IRA who never reached the age of 66, of men and women who never got to see their grandchildren because their lives were cut short by murderous republicanism, of children stolen from their parents and grandparents by the organisation in which McGuinness was a commander.”
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