His death leaves a gap that will be difficult to fill

TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY

‘Martin McGuinness will always be remembered for the remarkable political journey he undertook in his lifetime. Not only did he come to believe that peace must prevail but he committed himself to working tirelessly to that end and living for his convictions to that end. He was one of the chief architects of the Good Friday Agreement and he worked resolutely in the years that followed it in pursuit of its full implementation. His relationship with the late Dr Ian Paisley in particular was remarkable given the very different backgrounds they came from. It was a mark of the man that Martin McGuinness was that he worked so closely with Ian Paisley for the betterment of all the people of Northern Ireland.

PRESIDENT MICHAEL D. HIGGINS

‘The world of politics and the people across this island will miss the leadership Martin McGuinness gave, shown most clearly during the difficult times of the Peace Process, and his commitment to the values of genuine democracy that he demonstrated in the development of the institutions in Northern Ireland.

As a political colleague of many years, and having participated together in the Presidential election campaign of 2011 that brought us all over Ireland, Sabina and I have appreciated both Martin McGuinness’ warmth and his unfailing courtesy.

FORMER US PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

‘When he decided to fight for peace, Martin was calm, courageous, and direct. And when he gave his word, that was as good as gold. As Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, his integrity and willingness to engage in principled compromise were invaluable in reaching the Good Friday Agreement. ‘My lasting memory of him will be the pride he took in his efforts to improve disadvantaged schools in unionist and protestant communities. He believed in a shared future, and refused to live in the past, a lesson all of us who remain should learn and live by.

FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, TONY BLAIR

‘I grew up hearing about the Martin McGuinness who was a leading member of the IRA engaged in armed struggle. I came to know the Martin McGuinness who set aside that armed struggle in favour of making peace. There will be some who cannot forget the bitter legacy of the war. And for those who lost loved ones in it that is completely understandable. But for those of us able finally to bring about the Northern Ireland peace agreement, we know we could never have done it without Martin’s leadership, courage and quiet insistence that the past should not define the future.

Whatever the past, the Martin I knew was a thoughtful, reflective and committed individual.

FORMER PRESIDENT OF IRELAND MARY McALEESE

‘We knew things were not good and we went up to see him and Bernie and the children. I went on one mission and it really was to say to him, ‘Thank you, thank you for what you have accomplished and thank you for helping to construct, along with many others helping, but being a significant figure among those others and a significant figure of leadership, thank you for helping to construct a future that our grandchildren can look forward to – a future of peace”,’ she told Seán O’Rourke yesterday morning on RTÉ Radio 1. ‘He was the most peaceful person you would ever meet, completely at peace with himself, utterly. Now, he did not talk in terms of his death, but it was evident that he was a very, very ill man.’

FORMER TAOISEACH BERTIE AHERN

‘In negotiations, particularly when they are tense, when there is a lot at stake it can’t be a ‘winner takes all’ - Martin understood compromise. He understood he had a position to articulate and he did that very effectively. He wasn’t a guy that came in apologising for being there or for not arguing his case.

‘He listened and he was able, I think, to arbitrate between different points of view. Of course, people disliked the past and if Martin was still here this morning he would say he disliked some of the things they did too. But he had the ability to try and move forward and once he made up his mind his word was his bond, he was very determined and honest and would stick to it. You didn’t have to come back and argue ‘listen Martin we agreed this last week and now you have changed your mind”, I don’t think that ever happened with Martin McGuinness.

I think Martin McGuinness would have been happier following Derry GAA club or Derry City or fly-fishing in Donegal. I think it was the Troubles and the civil rights movement that grew into the IRA and into the Provisional IRA after they split. He was a great family man and I think that is what drove him into this and then of course he started playing a key role. He was a good person.’

FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER JOHN MAJOR

‘For too many years, too many people lost their lives over the Troubles. Martin McGuinness realised that – if one wishes to secure long-term peace, negotiation must always prevail over violence. In a mixed legacy, that stands to his credit. Let that be his epitaph.

‘When he approached us, making it clear, in effect, that he was prepared to contribute to a peace process, he was taking a risk. I had difficult backbenchers who opposed what I was doing, but he had difficult volunteers who were much more violent than my backbenchers’

FORMER U.S. SENATOR AND NORTHERN IRELAND PEACE ENVOY GEORGE MITCHELL

‘He took his people from conflict to peace, from violence to democratic means, from resolving differences through ballots not bullets and for that he will be remembered, as will the other leaders of Northern Ireland on all sides.

‘He was weak but alert [when Mr Mitchell visited McGuinness at his home a couple of weeks ago]. We had a good talk, a few laughs reminiscing about some of the crises we had been through in the past.

‘Martin was always an engaging personality and someone with whom it was a pleasure to deal with, even when we had disagreements.

‘There was a good deal of violence while I was there [in the North during the 1990s], but Martin and others on both sides played crucial roles in making the transformation from conflict to co-operation, from bullets to ballots. It is an important move, he deserves great credit for it, as do leaders on all sides of several parties.

‘When the peace agreement was announced in 1998, it was the first instalment, not the final issue and it has to be continued, and it is up to the current leaders to carry that mantle forward. I think that’s the message of Martin McGuinness’s life and passing.

‘We had a meeting in Dublin and Martin disagreed with some of my decisions.

‘He let me know it and I let him know my decision was final.

‘He had that sparkle in his eyes and he kind of laughed and it was a moment of disagreement, but like many other moments of disagreement he got over it very quickly, and I did, and we moved forward.’

FORMER SDLP LEADER AND NOBEL WINNER JOHN HUME, AND HIS WIFE PAT

‘Martin McGuinness left an indelible print on politics in Ireland. Our starting points on the approach to finding a solution to the divisions on this island were very different, but there can be no doubt Martin was deeply committed to the agreed Ireland of the Good Friday Agreement and its power-sharing institutions. He played a very important role in our peace process and his courageous, generous and gracious gestures as deputy first minister were offered in a spirit of reconciliation and peace-building.

‘Our deepest condolences go to his wife Bernie, their children Fiachra, Emmet, Gráinne, Fionnuala and the wider family circle.’

SINN FÉIN’S LEADER IN NORTHERN IRELAND, MICHELLE O’NEILL

‘On behalf of Sinn Féin I want to offer my deepest condolences following the death of our friend and comrade, Martin McGuinness.

‘Martin was truly a giant of Irish politics and was known and respected across the world.

‘He led republicanism from the front for decades, striving for reunification and promoting peace and reconciliation and a genuine commitment to equality and respect.

‘Growing up as a young republican I was inspired by Martin McGuinness and I continue to be today.

‘His leadership, grace and warm personality have transformed Irish politics for the better and his impact will be felt for many years to come. My thoughts are with his wife, Bernie, and children, Emmet, Fiachra, Fionnuala and Gráinne and the entire clan at this time.”

SINN FÉIN DEPUTY LEADER MARY LOU MCDONALD

‘Martin was an inspirational Irish republican, a tireless worker for Ireland, for unity for peace, and for reconciliation, and it was my privilege to call him my friend. He will never be forgotten.

‘His legacy is a peaceful future, that future he helped to secure for our island, and the advancement of the movement for Irish unity, which gathers pace year on year.

‘Martin wasn’t any ordinary politician. He was a unique figure, a one-off, born into a particular set of circumstances in his beloved Derry, he never flinched from taking risks. He at times forced all of us into positions that were uncomfortable, at times politically fraught, but a man who always pursued what he believed to be right. And we are devastated at this loss. We loved him dearly, and our thoughts are with Bernie and the family.

‘He is absolutely inimitable and irreplaceable. Martin, if he were standing here today in these shoes, would remind you that the journey he made he did not make alone.

‘He was very proud to lead republicans into an era of genuine new politics, into an era of peace-making, as challenging as that can be, and he took great pride in that. But he never took sole credit for it.

‘He is irreplaceable. They are shoes that cannot be filled, but what we have to do is take his legacy, move forward with that agenda of peace and Irish reunification, the things that Martin cared so passionately about.’

IAN PAISLEY JR:

‘I think the Christian view in life is how a person’s journey started is of course important, but it is how it finishes which is actually more important.

‘The journey of Martin McGuinness’s life ended in a very different way to what people would have supposed it would have done.’

He said Mr McGuinness was once a man who struck fear into people’s hearts in Northern Ireland.

‘Yet he became the necessary man in government to deliver a stable and necessary peace, and that’s a complex and remarkable journey.’

ARLENE FOSTER, DUP LEADER:

‘I know this is a hugely difficult day across Northern Ireland. Difficult for many different reasons and indeed there are many victims today who are feeling very hurt and very sore and I would never seek to minimise that pain that they are going through today. History will judge all of that.

‘I want to acknowledge his contribution to the governance of Northern Ireland here over those ten years and I think it is important that that is reflected on and that everything is balanced today.

‘But of course there will be plenty of time to look back on his life and his contribution to Northern Ireland but for today I do think it is very important we acknowledge the pain his family is going through.

‘I think that he and I both wanted to see Stormont succeed and I think he wanted to see people well represented here in the government of Northern Ireland and he would have wanted to have continued.

‘I think he did want to contribute positively to all of the people of Northern Ireland and it’s in that spirit I want to mark his passing today.’

GERRY ADAMS, SINN FÉIN PRESIDENT:

‘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 reunification of his country. But above all he loved his family and the people of Derry and he was immensely proud of both.’

He said later: ‘Martin, as we all know, was a very passionate Irish republican. He believed in our people – that people of this island should be free. He believed in reconciliation. He worked very, very hard at all of that.’

THERESA MAY, UK PRIME MINISTER:

‘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. In doing so, he made an essential and historic contribution to the extraordinary journey of Northern Ireland from conflict to peace.

‘While we certainly didn’t always see eye to eye even in later years, as deputy first minister for nearly a decade, he was one of the pioneers of implementing cross-community power sharing in Northern Ireland. He understood both its fragility and its precious significance and played a vital part in helping to find a way through many difficult moments.’

PETER MANDELSON, FORMER NORTHERN SECRETARY:

‘He achieved so much, he was so central to what happened, to a peace process and the Good Friday Agreement which was one of the greatest political success stories of modern times and he played absolutely indispensable role in that.

‘He had great skills of persuasion and that is what the peace process was about, it was about leaders on both sides of the divide deciding they were going to devote themselves, their lives, their energy to persuading their own side to come along in the direction that they thought was right.

‘Martin played in indispensable role in persuading his colleagues to finally and fully to renounce violence and to go the democratic route.

‘We have lost a great soldier, if I can use that term, in the peace process.’

JEREMY CORBYN, BRITISH LABOUR PARTY LEADER:

‘Martin McGuinness played an immeasurable role in bringing about peace in Ireland, after years as a key protagonist in the tragedy of the conflict.

‘Martin played an absolutely crucial role in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement and a peace process which, despite difficulties, remains an example throughout the world of what can be achieved when the will is there.’

JOHN BRUTON, FORMER TAOISEACH:

‘Notwithstanding our profound political differences, I always found him to be a very friendly person and easy to talk to.

‘The good and warm personal relationship he developed with Ian Paisley set a very good example. But it has yet to be followed by a genuine political reconciliation between the two communities they represented.’

ALEX SALMOND, FORMER SCOTTISH FIRST MINISTER:

‘As first minister of Scotland, I was asked by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness to go to Northern Ireland in 2007... and found a remarkable partnership, which was the anchor of the institutions consolidating the peace process.’