Former NI deputy first minister Martin McGuinness dies aged 66
Written by News on 21/03/2017
Former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister and former IRA chief-of-staff Martin McGuinness has died at the age of 66.
Mr McGuinness resigned as Deputy First Minister in January after a decade in the power sharing role with the Democratic Unionists which helped to end 30 years of conflict in the country.
A statement from his Sinn Fein party said he died on Tuesday in Derry following a short illness.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said on Tuesday: "Throughout his life Martin showed great determination, dignity and humility and it was no different during his short illness.
"He was a passionate republican who worked tirelessly for peace and reconciliation and for the re-unification of this country. But above all he loved his family and the people of Derry and he was immensely proud of both.
"On behalf of republicans everywhere we extend our condolences to Bernie, Fiachra, Emmet, Fionnuala and Grainne, grandchildren and the extended McGuinness family."
Mr McGuinness was a former butcher who rose to become a commander in the IRA and promised to lead the republican movement to a united Ireland.
He helped to negotiate the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, secured IRA arms decommissioning in 2005 and then shared government with unionist leader Reverend Ian Paisley as deputy first minister.
In 2012, he was pictured shaking hands with and toasting the Queen in what he hoped would help define "a new relationship between Britain and Ireland and between the Irish people themselves".
He did not join the IRA until after the British Army had been sent to Northern Ireland in August 1969 to restore order after a pitched battle between the RUC and people of Bogside.
Mr McGuinness was jailed for six months in the Republic of Ireland after being caught in a car containing large quantities of explosives and ammunition.
A teetotal, non-smoker who enjoyed Gaelic football, cricket and fishing, he said he left the IRA in 1974.
But other accounts suggest he was made chief of staff of the organisation in 1978 and streamlined it into an urban guerrilla force comprised of small cells.
His unlikely partnership with Rev Paisley led to them earning the nickname the "Chuckle Brothers".
In January this year, he resigned as deputy first minister amid concerns over his health after giving First Minister Arlene Foster an ultimatum to step aside over the "cash for ash" energy scandal – triggering a snap election.
He is survived by his wife Bernie and four children.
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(c) Sky News 2017: Former NI deputy first minister Martin McGuinness dies aged 66
