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WITH THE RESIGNATION of Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister, Northern Ireland is being fast-tracked to a new round of elections.
McGuinness stepped down from his role amid the ongoing ‘cash for ash’ scandal, which involves his colleague, First Minister Arlene Foster.
This latest step marks yet another twist in McGuinness’s career: A man who acknowledges he was once a member of the IRA but ended up occupying one of the highest offices in the North when he became its Deputy First Minister.
Now he’s stepping down and leaving Stormont without one of its most experienced politicians.
Foster had been under major pressure to step down due to the scandal, which was sparked by allegations from a whistleblower that the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme was being abused. An investigation has been launched into the situation, which could cost taxpayers in Northern Ireland upwards of £400m.
Foster faced a vote of no confidence in the assembly in December – but survived.
Though the news of McGuinness’s resignation was in some ways unprecedented, on Saturday, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams – at whose side McGuinness has long worked – had warned that the Stormont assembly would collapse if Foster did not step aside.
But McGuinness has pledged that his resignation won’t mean change in the power-sharing situation, telling journalists there will not be a return “to the status quo”.
Still, Sinn Féin has decided not to nominate a successor to McGuinness until after an election – and unless it appoints a successor, that election will be triggered in seven days.
An unexpected career journey
Born in 1950 in Derry, McGuinness was second-in-command of the IRA in his home city by the age of 21. He says that he left the IRA two years later, in 1974.
In 1973, he was jailed after being arrested near a car that contained explosives and ammunition. After his release he became more involved with Sinn Féin.
By 1982 he was elected to the latest attempt to set up a devolved Northern Ireland assembly – but as an abstentionist he did not take his seat in Stormont.
McGuinness played a key role in the Northern Ireland peace process, taking on the job of chief negotiator for Sinn Féin in the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement and a new era for the north.
When the peace process eventually led to the setting up of a power-sharing executive, he first took the role of Minister for Education, later ascending to become Deputy First Minister in 2007 – with the DUP’s Ian Paisley taking on the First Minister role .
This came after the St Andrews Agreement, which finally brought devolution of power to Northern Ireland and saw longtime foes the DUP agreeing to share power with Sinn Féin.
In 2011, he ran in the Irish Presidential election – despite the fact he was unable to vote in it himself. He was challenged on his IRA past while running in the election.
In the last two decades we’ve seen the most remarkable happenings in McGuinness’s career. The first, the revelation that he and DUP leader and First Minister Ian Paisley had more than just a civil working relationship – and were on friendly terms.
His relationship with Paisley’s successor Peter Robinson – who retired in January of last year, and was replaced by Foster – was decidedly more businesslike.
“I have a working relationship with Peter,” McGuinness told The Nolan Show in 2014.
I mean, I’m in a position of Deputy First Minister for seven years now, and it all started with the relationship with Ian Paisley and to the surprise of many people, Ian Paisley and I had not just a good working relationship but a good personal relationship, which has existed to this very day.
McGuinness said in the same interview that he was told one of the reasons Paisley had to go was his close relationship with the Sinn Féin member.
“I think that an essential phase of the whole process of conflict resolution is the importance of reconciliation between political opponents and between everybody in the community,” said McGuinness.
Alongside his relationship with Paisley, many commentators were also surprised by his decision to meet with Queen Elizabeth.
The pair first met briefly in Belfast in 2012, where they shook hands. In 2014, McGuinness had a historic private meeting with her, which he described as “very nice”.
Asked by Jeremy Paxman what “on earth” he was doing “breaking bread with the head of an occupying power”, McGuinness said:
I have many reasons why I shouldn’t meet with Queen Elizabeth, but she too has many reasons why she shouldn’t meet with me. But we both thought it was an important thing to do.
The Queen herself even quipped “well, I’m still alive anyway” after being asked how her visit to Belfast in 2016 was going.
This friendliness to the head of the British monarchy was a sign of how things had changed regarding Sinn Féin’s approach to the royal family. But it didn’t come without much work behind the scenes.
McGuinness said that his party “obviously wasn’t ready” during the Queen’s previous visits, telling Paxman “we have conducted enormous conversations and discussion with our own people particularly in advance of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Belfast” and on whether or not he should be meeting her.
“Effectively people realised in the context of the conflict resolution process that it was very important to be involved not in mealy-mouthed words of reconciliation but actual acts of reconciliation,” he said.
Gerry Adams / TwitterTen years of valient service in Office Of First&DeputyFirst Minister Martin McGuinness signs resignation letter. GRMA chara 4 all Ur work. pic.twitter.com/1i4ezDTF5h
— Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) January 9, 2017
Asked what he would have thought if he was told in the 1970s that he would be sitting down for dinner with the Queen of England, McGuinness told Paxman:
“Similarly, I never would have imagined I would have been Minister for Education in a power-sharing government in the North,”, and neither could he have imagined being joint First Minister with Ian Paisley.
And I’m an Irish republican and absolutely dedicated to ending partition and bringing about the unity of the people of the north and the north with the south and we’ve agreed in the context of the Good Friday Agreement that that can only change through a constitutional vote and I am working to achieve that.
But were Sinn Féin’s actions regarding the Queen driven by a fear they would lose political capital if they opted out, Paxman asked McGuinness, who responded:
“That’s not the reason for this at all, I mean I watched the conduct of that visit very, very carefully and I have to say I was tremendously impressed. That Queen Elizabeth was prepared to stand in solemn commemoration of those people who fought against British rule in Ireland; that she was prepared to honour the Irish language in the way she did.”
I do believe that we are inexorably moving towards the reunification of Ireland but it can only happen by purely peaceful and democratic means.
Difficult and testing
In his resignation letter yesterday, McGuinness said that his 10 years in the role were “difficult and testing”, but that he had “sought with all my energy and determination to serve all the people of the north and the island of Ireland by making the power-sharing government work”.
He has, he said, “sought to exercise my responsibilities in good faith and to seek resolutions rather than recrimination”, and accused the DUP of never “fully” embracing the “equality, mutual respect and all-Ireland approaches enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement”.
He described the DUP’s handling of the ‘cash for ash’ issue as “completely out of step with the public mood”, saying that the fact Foster has not decided to stand aside means her position is “not credible or tenable”.
McGuinness has had to pull out of recent engagements for health reasons, but he said yesterday that his health was not part of his decision to resign.
“Health has got absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever,” McGuinness told journalists.
Whether health concerns do go on to determine how his career progresses, a look back at McGuinness’s years in politics so far is a look at how much those in power in Northern Ireland have changed.
For a former IRA member to shake hands with the Queen, and have a good personal relationship with the leader of the DUP, was unprecedented back in the 1970s. But for Nothern Ireland to progress, and for change to occur, uncomfortable compromise has been needed at all levels.
For Sinn Féin to occupy the place it does in the power-sharing executive, those in the party have had to take public steps that they previously would not have countenanced.
But McGuinness’s resignation does also show that the stability of power sharing can never be taken for granted. He and Foster do not have the relationship he and Paisley had – and neither the DUP or Sinn Féin are looking like they will back down given their takes on the ‘cash for ash’ scandal.
“We now need an election to allow the people to make their own judgement on these issues democratically at the ballot box,” concluded McGuinness. What happens next will most likely be up to the people to decide, as they gear up for a possible election.
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Martin McGuinness, a rare example of a politician with courage and integrity.
No politician on ireland resigns when they do wrong. mcguinness resigned because someone else did wrong. nothing has changed
@Patrick Gough: excellent point, by McGuinness’s logic I should stop farming because Rolf Harris was convicted. Thumbs up given
@Dessie Deratta: Bull shit, Sinn Fein are fully behind the renewable energy scam North and South. Have you gone mad?
@justanothertaxpayer: Do not forget about car bombs, bank robberies, extortion, protection rackets, fuel laundering, rape and smuggling.
Arlene Foster’s refusal temporarily to step aside during the investigation looks more and more indefensible.
It is now up to the DUP the rest of the DUP leadership to prevail upon Arlene Foster or else to remove her as leader or to vote no confidence in her leadership.
Most likely Foster will return as First Minister. There will be no investigation into RHI.
So, no change.
This could (and maybe should) have happened as far back as 9 years ago, what nationalists in the North have to put up with from Unionists is disgraceful. If its not constant Unionist bigotry, sectarianism, etc then its the DUP not honouring political agreements, scrapping £50,000 (a tiny amount) Irish Language funds then announcing on the same day an extra £250,000 for Loyalist bands with track records of Anti-Catholic displays and activities. They do all this simply to insult and hinder progress. But Sinn Fein has defied all this and tried reaching out to Unionists. But after numerous DUP scandals, Peter Robinsons land deals, the Red Sky Scandal, Iris Robinson’s affairs with teenagers, the NAMA Scandal and now the RHI scandal, enough really is enough. I wish Mr McGuinness all the best and hope he continues in politics.
@Charlie: You are right that Sinn Fein has tried and succeeded in the peace process. Nobody is perfect and I feel safer and better off now that there is a peace process and that it worked reasonable well. Martin did work with Ian Paisley and showed good leadership. When his time came he should have retired and his name would be secured as positive to his country as an Irishman, as I am. But to do this for a scam that he himself pushed and his party is still pushing is bazaar.
I have spent my Christmas compiling planning submissions for wind farms in The South for which there is no cost benefit analysis. Several of my fellow campaigners in the North are devoting time and money fighting the plan that the Northern Ireland Government is pushing, pylons and wind farms. Sinn Fein told me they are 4 square behind this
Yet you had FG (Noel Rock) backing Arlene Foster on Vincent Browne last night. Two disgusting parties!
Val Martin.. fcuk off with your stupid wind farms spoiling the environment, you wouldn’t live beside one yourself and don’t tell me you are because I won’t believe you.. the countryside is destroyed with those monstrosities…
@Lucille dead right! We should go back to burning coal asap rather than have our environment ruined by horrible wind farms, or better still there’s always the nuclear option..
@Lucille Ball: You did not read my post, I am against wind farms, McGuinness is fully supportive of them. Appologise and give me a thumbs up immediately.
@shits ville: This resigantion is about burning wood from cut down trees, wind energy does not replace burning fossil fuel, it causes more of it to be burned. McGuinness supports renewable energy, wind solar and wood chip. It all a scam
Great article Aoife. Fair play
McGuinness always came across as a hard worker, honest about his roots which I respect and willing to stand up for the good of his community and a great leader. He always showed leadership in engaging with Paisley or the British Queen. He is at odds with the snivelling, untruthful bearded one who strikes me as everything opposite to the type of man and the character that McGuiness is. McGuiness would have made a good leader of SF.
McGuinness is morally bankrupt.
The terrorist organisation he was a member of destroyed the lives of countless men, women and children.
All in the name of accepting partition and a UK regional assembly ruled from London.
Bit of an ‘all or nothing’ view there…
Recognise the IRA for what they are… terrorists.
His autobiography, if written honestly, would be a great read.
@@snapsofdublin.com: That was another great stunt he pulled, or SF to be accurate and he’ll retire on health grounds next. SF, putting themselves first as usual and their political stunts. SF/L/FG/FF, are the reason this country is so fooked up.
I wish him well in his recovery.
@jane: What has McGuinnesse’s health to do with this scam? If he has health issues, then retire, if he has renewable energy issues, then he is at fault, he should retire along with Arlene Forter in shame.
Its his scheme as much as hers, it was never assessed under the SEA Directive of Aarhus Convention
A scam with wind energy.,See the Irish Energy Blog. 3rd highest electricity prices and every Tom Dick and Harry getting contracts to supply wind energy at a guaranteed price for 15 years. Are you all gone stark raving mad? Your pension fund is gone, old age pensions in 20 years will be sixty euros a week, and this is all youse have to talk about
I think you’re the one who’s gone “raving mad” you feckin balloon
Val this particular article is about the mans career in politics, there are other articles about the scam and I have commented previously on those. On this one my first thought on reading it was that I wish him well. So take your knickers out of its twist.
@ Rhuaidhri… it’s ‘Val’ that needs to retire I agree!
@jane: I have endorsed the contribution McGuinness made to the peace process, but he resigned over a renewable energy scam corruption by Arlene Foster. He was and is (with his party) involved in this renewable energy scam to the horror of me and rural residents and consumers. He is a hypocrite, they all have been caught out and you want me to let it pass on social media.
It does not work that way.
Val I don’t want you to do anything. Rant and rave away I have no problem with that. Do not however, have a go at me for wishing him well in his recovery and not mentioning the scam when I have already given my opinion on it in another article, an article that is actually about the scam.
Cash for ash up North
Cash for vultures down south.
Who is going to be remembered for doing what’s right.
MC Guinness stuck to his word of resigning.
Foster stuck to blaming everyone but her
Down south we await..???
@LITTLEONE: Nonsense, Cash for Ash is part of the environmentally destructive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. So is wind energy. Sinn Fein strongly support both, No SEA or coist benefit analysis done, so he is a hypocrite.
Any man who defends his community in such a way as McGuinness has done deserves respect! He defended his community when they where being slaughtered by the might of the British army for demanding equal rights! He made peace when he could but always sought the destruction of bigotry and discrimination over his people! Despite what the media campaigns over the years tell you this guy was a remarkable man, willing to put his life on the line for his country and people!
@Gearoid Mag Leannáin: I would have to agree with you somewhat. I don’t agree with violence, but he did put every effort to bring peace to Ireland and for that I am grateful. But when he got power to sided with corruption and law breaking with renewable energy. He is as much to blame are she is.
Arlene Foster and her party have so much hate for Sinn Fein that they can’t share power and that was very evident in their interviews all day yesterday. It’s something they did not see coming and might step back and have a good look at how they are doing their business. I really think that they can see a United Ireland closing in slowly and this is their answer to show they are in charge .
I think that the life of Martin McGuinness memoirs will be a lot more believable that that of his mate Adams.
Probably won’t do any bio, recall the Boston tapes !
‘In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in political terms.’
Thomas Mann.
And you can definitely say that of Martin McGuinness.
@Alex Falcone: You must have swallowed a dictionary
@Val Martin:
Food for thought Val.
@Alex Falcone: Thumbs up given for wit. Danish dairy farmers finished too. Milk price flat but inputs rising ,,, Electricity @ 32 cent. Finished . more wind turbines than anywhere else. See. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WeIXkKRRVM Imagine cutting down trees in the USA and Germany, lorrying them to the sea, shipping them to N.I. lorrying them to distribution centres and burning them at 60 pence per kilo profit for no purpose.
How stupid can it get?
He didn’t look so well on the TV last night when announcing his retirement. Fighting words but he looked tired and frail.
Goodbye Martin sweet prince. You are a national hero, a national treasure. We will miss you. We love you.
I remember the Unionist politicians trying to trap McGuinness at an Armistice Day commemoration a few years ago by unexpectedly playing GSTQ to get a reaction out of him from the front row. Only to be answered by the man respectfully standing in unison with the Unionists until the bleating was finished. A man who was right on the front line fighting for civil rights against the British apartheid regime in the north only less than half a century ago, to a man who has made and has continued to work to make peace with the opposite side. The only Statesman that the North has. Or ‘had’ should I say.
Jim Corr all over this comments section
He showed statesmanship in greeting the British queen given that her son was commander in chief (albeit not militarily) of the Paratroop Regiment that massacred 14 of his fellow Derry residents. We’ve all moved on except, it seems, for the DUP. Cutting the Gaeltacht grants for poor kids was simply the last straw.
Probably the first of the provi’s to realise that the war was unwinnable, & that it was an entirely retrograde enterprise, setting back communal reconciliation by generations, on top the cost in human & economic loss.
The civil rights campaign was more successful in eliminating the structural & social discrimination in the six counties than all the bullets & bombs used by those neantherthals.
Let’s hope he is but the first of many to fade into extinction.
I have fought this renewable energy scam for 7 long years, just because wind and solar energy is more complex to count than “cash for ash” does not mean it is any less a scam. It’s time people realized Eamon Ryan and Duncan Stewart are wrong and Stewart was wrong on Eco eye about burning wood. It’s time people listened to our side and at least learn why I, a mature man with a business degree, a successful farmer and a winner in courts is doing this.
If you don’t listen, you will find out the hard way, like you found out about the 2008 banking crash. While Ireland was booming selling land to one and other, astute financiers were betting billions that the whole thing would collapse.
You know who won. Irish NREAP is set to cost 30 billion, all going to foreign investors. You will be paying your electricity bill (3 times what it should be) to pay the pensions of Americans . Mad
@Val Martin: Whether you like it or not – we will be forced to gradually migrate to renewable energy. Fossil fuels as a long-term solution to our energy needs are simply not feasible. Wind turbines are a tried and tested means of renewable energy production.
@Val Martin: Can bodies buried in bogs be used as fuel in the future?
@Seán Ó Briain: We will not be forced because it cannot be done. Wood chip is much harder on the environment than fossil fuel. I bet you cannot show any fossil fuel displaced by N.I. wood chip burning when you count the fuel used to take it from the forest to the burner. Vast areas of forest are been destroyed to get the wood. Wind and solar does not displace fossil fuel, you are the victim of a lie. Eamon Ryan said electricity prices would reduce if we installed wind energy, We now did that and prices have risen (not reduced) while the price of fuel has fallen. Why do you believe these lies. why did McGuinness believe it?
@Paddy Lions: graveyards are filling up with the bodies of old people dying from the cold because they cant afford to keep warm in their homes. It is not right and it is a shame people will not take a little time to study why we are trying to warn you all.
Foster refused to heed a warning, you are refusing to heed a warning, what is the difference?
@Seán Ó Briain: Wind turbines need more fossil to be burned not less. We need 6,000 mw capacity, we have 10,600 mw capacity and we are aiming for 15,000 mw capacity. Who do you think will pay for all that? 2.7 times the capacity we need. Do you also think electric cars work? do you?
@Val Martin: What about? What about? What about?
This election (not convinced it will happen) has very high stakes. 18 less seats, it will be DUP and SF who lose big
@Paul: it’ll be interesting! Maybe it’s time for change with SDLP and UUP going in, they might get on better but would the SDLP stand up for nationalist values like Sinn Fein would? Looks like it could be SF and DUP again but DUP will probably lose a few seats to UUP. SF lost seats in last election, I can’t see them lose much more if any.
Nationalist values like SF knee capping… Enniskillen bomb …the disappeared keeping the war going for decades after it should have ended…..Let’s hope none votes against Nationalist values
@Paul: SDLP and UUP will make gains…but it should be Alliance that will be the big winners.
@Guybrush Threepwood: If you look at the 2016 election it is probably the SDLP who will loose most – they took a lot of 6th seats that will be very hard to hold in 5 seat constituencies. Only really two SF at risk this time around. Agree UUP will gain from DUP but don’t see the stoops holding on to their current amount of seats, Alex Attwood is dead man walking in West Belfast!
An Phoblacht in disguise.
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