IRA fighter turned peacemaker McGuinness dies
‘While I can 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’
London — Martin McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army commander who later helped negotiate an end to the conflict in Northern Ireland, has died aged 66. His Sinn Fein party, which opposes British rule in Northern Ireland and was long considered the political arm of the IRA, announced the death in a statement on Tuesday, expressing "deep regret". The BBC said McGuinness, who trained to be a butcher in his native Derry and went on to play a central behind-the-scenes role in the historic 1998 peace deal, died of a rare heart condition. "While I can 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," British Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement. "In doing so, he made an essential contribution to the extraordinary journey of Northern Ireland from conflict to peace," she said. The violence in Northern Ireland killed about 3,500 people. Colin Parry, whose 1...
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