Forgive him but we the man he became
struck up a warm friendship with the Queen after first meeting her in 2012.
Yesterday, Buckingham Palace said she would be sending a private message of condolence to McGuinness’s widow Bernie.
Key political figures in the peace process, including former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair and ex-Irish premier Bertie Ahern, credited McGuinness’s efforts to bring about an end to violence.
Blair, who was Labour PM when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, said: “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.”
Major said: “For too many years, too many people lost their lives over the Troubles in Northern Ireland. 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.”
Former taoiseach Ahern described McGuinness as honest, a great leader, an extraordinary person and an upfront negotiator.
McGuinness’s last major act as a politician was to pull down the powersharing executive at Stormont when he resigned as deputy first minister in January in protest at the Democratic Unionists’ handling of a green energy scandal.
The move forced DUP First Minister Arlene Foster from office. Ten days later, showing signs of physical frailty, he announced his retirement from front line politics.
Foster said history would record differing views on McGuinness, but he had played a pivotal role in bringing the republican movement towards peace.
Ian Paisley Jnr, who as a junior minister worked alongside his father and the Sinn Fein veteran at Stormont, acknowledged many would have “mixed feelings” on his passing.
The North Antrim MP said: “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.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who controversially shared a platform with McGuinness at a news conference in the House of Commons in 1995, said he was “very sad” at the death of a politician who has “played an immeasurable role” in the peace process.
Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “Martin will always be remembered for the remarkable political journey that he undertook in his lifetime. Not only did Martin come to believe that peace must prevail, he committed himself to working tirelessly to that end.”
Former first minister Alex Salmond tweeted his “sympathy and condolences” to McGuinness’s family, along with a statement that recalled his visit to Northern Ireland at the launch of the Stormont powersharing agreement in 2007.
Salmond said Paisley and McGuinness were a “remarkable partnership”, adding: “They were both solid friends of Scotland.”
A funeral for McGuinness, who leaves four children, will be held in Derry tomorrow.
The peace agreement could never have been possible without Martin’s courage and leadership TONYBLAIR