Ex-IRA commander McGuinness dies at 66
Belfast: One of the most iconic images of the peace process in Northern Ireland was the handshake between former IRA commander Martin McGuinness and Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the province in 2012.
The image of the British monarch and the former republican fighter turned peacemaker, both of them smiling, was captured by an AFP photographer Paul Faith, who was working for the Press Association at the time.
“It was a pretty historic handshake. It was going to be a handshake that travelled around the world. Everybody was on tenterhooks bar those two,” Faith said.
McGuinness was deputy first minister of the province at the time, a role he relinquished earlier this year. He died Tuesday aged 66. McGuinness, who fought against British rule in Northern Ireland, seemed “quite relaxed” as he shook the Queen’s hands for the first time but the security guards were visibly nervous, Faith remembered.
“It seemed like it was his calling. It was part of his journey. It was another box being ticked,” he said.
McGuinness’s Sinn Fein party does not recognise the Queen’s rule in Northern Ireland but he played a key role in negotiating a 1998 peace agreement. As they shook hands, Faith said McGuinness seemed to hold on to the Queen’s “a wee bit longer” than usual. “He was going to make sure I got the picture!” he said.
Faith remembered the queen, who wore a pistachio-green outfit, seemed “bemused”.
After the meeting, at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast on June 27 2012, McGuinness wished her well in Irish, in a phrase that translates as: “Goodbye and God bless”.
The next day, after the picture made front pages around the world, McGuinness approached Faith while he was covering the Irish Open golf tournament. “Paul, you made me famous again!” he told the photographer, before getting a picture taken of the two of them shaking hands.