Martin McGuinness, Irish rebel turned politician, dies

Martin McGuinness, the Irish Republican Army commander who led his underground paramilitary movement toward reconciliation with Britain, died Tuesday, his Sinn Fein party announced. He was 66.

Turning from rebel to peacemaker, McGuinness served as Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister for a decade in a Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government.

The party said he died following a short illness.

McGuinness suffered from amyloidosis, a rare disease with a strain specific to Ireland’s northwest.

The chemotherapy required to combat the formation of organ-choking protein deposits quickly sapped him of strength and forced him to start missing government appointments.

“Throughout his life Martin showed great determination, dignity and humility and it was no different during his short illness,’’ Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said.

“He was a passionate republican who worked tirelessly for peace and reconciliation and for the re-unification of his country. But above all he loved his family and the people of Derry and he was immensely proud of both.’’

Irish President Michael D. Higgins said people across Ireland would miss “the leadership he 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.’’