From IRA commander to ‘Chuckle Brother’

Bill Smith -

Like many Northern Irish Catholics of his generation, Martin McGuinness grew up amid sectarian violence and embraced the cause of a united Ireland from an early age.

He was born in May 1950 in the predominantly Catholic city of Derry — also known as Londonderry — and lived in the rebellious Bogside suburb that formed part of a republican-proclaimed “Free Derry” in 1969.

McGuinness admitted to being a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) — branded a terrorist group by Britain — during the 1970s.

He was one of many young nationalists who flocked to the organisation following the deployment of the British army in Northern Ireland and what they perceived as the violent suppression of the nationalist-led civil rights movement.

By the time of the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry in January 1972, when 14 people died after the British Army opened fire on civil rights protesters, McGuinness was second in command of the IRA’s forces in the city. He met a young Gerry Adams there. “He and I first met over 45 years ago behind the barricades in Free Derry and we have been friends and comrades since that time,” Adams said in a January tribute to McGuinness, whom he called “the leader, the patriot, the peacemaker and poet.”

Adams remains president of Irish republican party Sinn Fein, which originally emerged as the IRA’s political wing. He and McGuinness have been the public faces of republicanism in Northern Ireland since the mid-1970s.

McGuinness was one of several leaders flown to London for secret, unsuccessful talks with the British government in 1972. The following year, he was convicted of terrorism offences linked to possession of explosives in the Republic of Ireland and served a short prison sentence.

But the man once dubbed “the godfather of godfathers” by a unionist politician is regarded as having played a pivotal role in persuading the IRA to call a ceasefire in 1994. McGuinness co-signed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which underpins Northern Ireland’s peace process and political power sharing.

Despite his status as a leading figure in Sinn Fein and former IRA commander, some of the most generous eulogies have come from unionists staunchly opposed to his quest for a united Ireland.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician Ian Paisley, the son and namesake of the party’s co-founder, paid tribute to McGuinness in January when he announced his withdrawal from Northern Irish politics due to ill health.

“[W]e would not be where we are in Northern Ireland, in terms of having stability, peace, and the opportunity to rebuild our country, if it hadn’t have been for the work that he did put in, especially with my father, at the beginning of this long journey,” said Paisley, a DUP member of the British parliament.

“The remarkable journey that Martin McGuinness went on has not only saved lives but has made the lives of countless people in Northern Ireland better because of the partnership government,” he told the BBC. Ian Paisley Sr, a Protestant minister and unionist firebrand, co-founded the DUP in 1971. He died in 2014.

After the collapse of power sharing in 2002, Paisley and McGuinnessled their parties in negotiations that culminated in the St Andrews Agreement in 2006.

McGuinness then served as deputy first minister to Paisley, who headed the revived power-sharing government from 2007 to 2008. Though some unionists still cannot forgive his role in IRA violence, McGuinness became a respected elder statesman in the eyes of many in Northern Ireland and beyond.

His transformation was completed by a highly symbolic handshake with Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 at a theatre in Belfast, as part of his duties as deputy first minister.

Sinn Fein said McGuinness had “emphasized the need to acknowledge the pain of all victims of the conflict and their families” and told the Queen that their meeting was a “powerful signal that peace-building requires leadership.”

The surprising warmth between

the pair earned them the nickname the Chuckle Brothers, after a British

comedy duo. — dpa