ASIDE DIFFERENCES FOR McGUINNESS FUNERAL
OLD foes from across Northern Ireland’s divide came together yesterday to pay their final respects to Martin McGuinness.
Thousands of people thronged the streets of Derry’s Bogside as the veteran Sinn Fein politician and former IRA commander’s coffin was carried to St Columba’s Church, led by a lone piper.
As Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster walked to her seat inside the church, mourners clapped in appreciation.
Former US president Bill Clinton singled her out as he started his eulogy, in which he implored the current political leaders to finish the peace building started by McGuinness.
He said: “I want to say a special word of appreciation to First Minister Foster for being here, because I know – and most people in this church know – that your life has been marked in painful ways by the Troubles.”
Foster’s late father survived an IRA assassination bid and she was caught up in a school bus bombing.
Father Michael Canny said the presence of McGuinness’s political rivals at the mass was “the most eloquent testimony” to his memory.
After the service, thousands followed the former deputy first minister’s coffin to the republican plot of the city cemetery, where Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams told mourners: “Without Martin there could not have been the type of peace process we’ve had.”
McGuinness died on Tuesday from a rare heart condition. He
was 66.