Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 22 March 2017

Martin McGuinness, IRA leader turned peacemaker, dies at 66

SHAWN POGATCHNIK without Martin’s leadership, was remarkable. As a senior
Associated Press courage and quiet insis- IRA commander during the
DUBLIN (AP) — Martin Mc- tence that the past should years of gravest Catholic-
Guinness took up arms to not define the future,” Blair Protestant violence, he in-
fight British soldiers in the said. sisted that Northern Ireland
streets but ended up shak- McGuinness’ Sinn Fein par- must be forced out of the
ing hands with Queen ty said he died in a hospi- United Kingdom against
Elizabeth II. A militant who tal in his hometown of Lon- the wishes of Protestants in
long sought to unify Ire- donderry following a short Northern Ireland.
land through violence, he illness. “We don’t believe that
became a peacemak- McGuinness suffered from winning elections and any
ing politician who earned amyloidosis, a rare dis- amount of votes will bring
the respect, and even the ease with a strain specific freedom in Ireland,” he
friendship, of his former en- to Ireland’s northwest. The told the BBC in 1986. “At
emies. chemotherapy required the end of the day, it will be
McGuinness, who died Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill, left, and party leader Gerry Adams to combat the formation the cutting edge of the IRA
place the Irish flag on the coffin of Martin McGuinness in Lon-
Tuesday at 66, was an Irish donderry, Northern Ireland, Tuesday, March, 21, 2017. Martin of organ-choking protein that will bring freedom.”
Republican Army com- McGuinness, the Irish Republican Army warlord who led his un- deposits sapped him of his Yet within a few years of
mander who led the para- derground, paramilitary movement toward reconciliation with strength and forced the making that stubborn vow,
military movement toward Britain, and was Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister for a de- once-indefatigable politi- McGuinness was involved
reconciliation with Britain cade in a power-sharing government, has died, his Sinn Fein cian to start missing gov-
and went on to serve as party announced Tuesday on Twitter. He was 66. ernment appointments. He in covert contacts with
(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
stepped down from front- British intelligence that led
line politics in January. eventually to a truce, inter-
Northern Ireland’s deputy Sinn Fein leader Gerry Ad- party talks and the installa-
first minister for a decade ams said McGuinness was tion of the IRA icon in the
in a Catholic-Protestant “a passionate republican heart of Northern Ireland’s
power-sharing unity gov- who worked tirelessly for government.
ernment. peace and reconciliation Irish Times columnist Fintan
Former British Prime Minis- and for the re-unification of O’Toole argued in January
ter Tony Blair, who worked his country.” 2017 that McGuinness had
with McGuinness to forge Irish Prime Minister Enda been “a mass killer — dur-
Northern Ireland’s 1998 Kenny said McGuinness ing his period of member-
peace accord, said “there “will always be remem- ship and leadership the
will be some who cannot bered for the remarkable IRA killed 1,781 people,
forget the bitter legacy of political journey that he including 644 civilians —
the war. And for those who undertook in his lifetime. whose personal amiability
lost loved ones in it, that is Not only did Martin come has been essential to the
completely understand- to believe that peace must peace process.”
able.” prevail, he committed him- “If he were not a ruthless
“But for those of us able self to working tirelessly to and unrepentant expo-
finally to bring about the that end.” nent of violence, he would
Northern Ireland peace But some who suffered at never have become such
agreement, we know we the hands of the IRA could a key figure in bringing vio-
could never have done it
not forgive. lence to an end,” O’Toole
Former British government said.
minister Norman Tebbit, Unlike his close ally Adams,
whose wife was paralyzed McGuinness never hid the
by an IRA bombing of a fact that he had been a
Brighton hotel in 1984, said commander of the IRA —
he hoped that McGuinness classed as a terrorist orga-
was “parked in a particu- nization by the British, Irish
larly hot and unpleasant and U.S. governments. Nor
corner of hell for the rest of could he.
eternity.” McGuinness is survived by
McGuinness’ transforma- his wife, Bernadette, two
tion into a peacemaker daughters and two sons.q