Martin McGuinnes: The Man I Knew

Contents List of Contributors

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Foreword 15 1

Mitchel McLaughlin

17

2

Peter Sheridan

32

3

Denis Bradley

49

4

Dermot Ahern

67

5

Dawn Purvis

75

6

George Mitchell

92

7

Eamonn McCann

104

8

Danny Morrison

116

9

Jonathan Powell

134

10

Martina Anderson

147

11

John McCallister

156

12

Joe McVeigh

167

13

David Latimer

178

14

Eileen Paisley

193

15

James T. Walsh

205

16

Eamonn MacDermott

215

17

Terry O’Sullivan

231

18

Michael McGimpsey

238

19

Aodhán Mac an tSaoir

249

20

Thomas P. DiNapoli

261

21

Peter King

268

22

Martin Mansergh

278

23

Pat Doherty

286

24

Mary Lou McDonald

295

25

Niall O’Dowd

304

26

Pat McArt

317

27

Bill Clinton: Eulogy

332

28

Gerry Adams

336

List of Contributors Gerry Adams was president of Sinn Féin from 1983 to 2018 and has been teachta dála (TD) for Louth since 2011. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011 he was member of parliament (MP) for West Belfast. During his time as president, Sinn Féin became the third-largest political party in the Republic of Ireland, the second-largest in Northern Ireland and the largest nationalist party in Ireland.

Dermot Ahern is a former Irish TD for the Louth constituency.

He was chairman of the British–Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body from 1993 to 1997, minister for foreign affairs from 2004 to 2008 and minister for justice, equality and law reform from 2008 to 2011. Since his retirement from politics in 2011, he has become an accredited mediator and uses his experience and contacts to work in the area of alternative dispute resolution.

Martina Anderson is a former political prisoner and a Sinn Féin politician. She was a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from 2007 to 2012, and served as a junior minister in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister from 2011 to 2012. She has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2012 to the present.

Denis Bradley was educated at St Columb’s College, Derry and later studied in Rome. He served as a priest in the Bogside and was a twenty-six-year-old curate on Bloody Sunday. He left the priesthood later in the 1970s. He was a founding member 7

Martin McGuinness: The Man I Knew

of Northlands alcohol and drugs residential counselling centre in 1973 in Derry and remains involved with the work of the centre as a consultant. Denis is also a consultant to the North West Alcohol Forum in Co. Donegal. He was vice-chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board from its formation on 4 November 2001 to 2006. In 2007 he was appointed co-chairman, along with Rev. Robin Eames, of the Consultative Group on the Past in Northern Ireland. A well-known political commentator, Denis also writes a monthly column for the Irish News and received an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Ulster for his contributions to the community and the peace process.

Bill Clinton served as the forty-second president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the presidency, he was governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992.

Thomas P. DiNapoli is the fifty-fourth comptroller of the state of New York. He has served in this position since 2007.

One of his primary responsibilities is to oversee the New York state pension fund – the third largest public pension fund in the United States, which provides retirement security to over a million public workers and pensioners. Under his leadership, the fund has invested nearly $270 million in Irish companies and made $30 million in private equity commitments specifically targeted at Northern Ireland. His office also examines how American companies are implementing the MacBride Principles legislation and where these companies invest their capital in Northern Ireland.

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List of Contributors

Pat Doherty is director of corporate governance in the Office of the New York State Comptroller, where he helps develop and administer social and environmental responsibility initiatives for the $184 billion New York state investment fund. Before coming to the state comptroller’s office in 2010, Pat was director of corporate social responsibility in the Office of the New York City Comptroller.

Peter King, a member of the Republican Party, is serving his thirteenth term in the US House of Representatives. He is a member of the Homeland Security Committee and also serves on the Financial Services Committee and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He served as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee from 2005 to 2006 and again from 2011 to 2012. He has been a leader in homeland security and is a strong supporter of the war against international terrorism, both at home and abroad.

David Latimer grew up in Dromore, Co. Down. Before becoming a Presbyterian minister, he worked as a systems analyst with Northern Ireland Electricity. In 1988 he was appointed minister of First Derry and Monreagh Presbyterian churches.

During 2008 he served as a hospital chaplain in Afghanistan.

David is married to Margaret and has three daughters.

AodhĂĄn Mac an tSaoir is from a strongly republican family. In 1971, as the conflict deepened, he joined the republican struggle and has been a full-time political activist for most of his life since then. From 1992 he worked as political adviser to Martin McGuinness and was a close friend.

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Martin McGuinness: The Man I Knew

Eamonn MacDermott worked in the film business and was involved in making a documentary about Johnny Walker of the Birmingham Six, among other projects. He was also a reporter with the Derry Journal for many years. He subsequently was editor of the Sunday Journal before leaving to go freelance in 2009. He is a former republican prisoner, having served almost sixteen years in the H Blocks.

Martin Mansergh is a former Fianna Fáil adviser and politician, and a historian. He was a member of the Irish Senate from 2002 to 2007 and TD for Tipperary South from 2007 to 2011.

He played a leading role in formulating Fianna Fáil policy on Northern Ireland.

Pat McArt was editor of the Derry Journal from 1982 to 2006.

During those years he had almost daily contact with local leaders such as John Hume, Martin McGuinness and Bishop Edward Daly. He began his career in his hometown of Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, before moving to RTÉ in Dublin in 1980. He has frequently broadcast on both national and local media.

John McCallister was born and grew up on a family farm in Glasker near Rathfriland, Co. Down. He was president of the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster from 2003 to 2005 and MLA for South Down from 2007 to 2016. He was the first MLA to pass a private members bill (PMB), the Caravans Act of 2011, and the only member to have a second PMB passed, the Assembly and Executive Reform (Assembly Opposition) Act 2016. An Ulster Unionist Party member from 2005 to 2013, he resigned over an electoral pact in a Mid-Ulster by-election. Co-founder 10

List of Contributors

of political party NI21 in June 2013, he resigned in July 2014. He is currently the Northern Ireland human rights commissioner.

Eamonn McCann is a long-time socialist and member of Derry Trades Union Council. He is involved in campaigns for workers’ rights and women’s liberation, and against state repression and defilement of the environment. ‘If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution’ is his favourite quotation, which was first uttered by political activist and writer Emma Goldman.

Mary Lou McDonald is a Dubliner, mother and unrepentant Fenian. In 2004 she became Sinn Féin’s first MEP and is currently TD for Dublin Central. She was deputy leader of Sinn Féin from 2011 and became its president in 2018.

Michael McGimpsey is a former Ulster Unionist Belfast city councillor and MLA in the Stormont Assembly. He worked closely with David Trimble and was made minister for the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, and later minister for health in the Stormont Executive.

Mitchel McLaughlin was a lifelong friend and confidant of the late Martin McGuinness. Until he retired from day-to-day politics, he was a leading strategist and spokesperson for Sinn Féin over a forty-year period. In public life he served as Sinn Féin’s national and regional chairperson, local councillor, MLA and speaker of the Assembly. Mitchel also played a key role in developing the peace process, engagement with the unionist community and in the development of Sinn Féin’s economic policies.

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Martin McGuinness: The Man I Knew

Joe McVeigh was born in Ederney, Co. Fermanagh in 1945. He attended Moneyvriece Primary School, St Michael’s Grammar School, Enniskillen and St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. He was ordained for the diocese of Clogher in 1971 and has served in parishes in Monaghan and Fermanagh. He is assistant priest in St Michael’s parish, Enniskillen. His hobbies are music and reading.

George Mitchell served for several years as chairman of the global law firm DLA Piper. Before that, he served as a federal judge; as majority leader of the United States Senate; as chairman of peace negotiations in Northern Ireland, which resulted in an agreement that ended an historic conflict; and most recently as US special envoy to the Middle East. In 2008 Time magazine described him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Senator Mitchell is the author of five books. His most recent are a memoir entitled The Negotiator: Reflections on an American Life (2015) and A Path to Peace (2016).

Danny Morrison is a writer and media commentator. He is the author of seven books, including novels, non-fiction, memoir and political commentary, as well as several plays and short stories.

Formerly, he was the national spokesperson for Sinn Féin, editor of An Phoblacht/Republican News and MLA for Mid-Ulster. He was imprisoned several times between 1972 and 1995.

Niall O’Dowd went to America in 1979 from Drogheda, Co. Louth. He is the founder of IrishCentral.com, Irish America magazine and the Irish Voice newspaper. He was awarded an honorary degree from UCD and an Irish Presidential 12

List of Contributors

Distinguished Service Award for his work on the Irish peace process.

Terry O’Sullivan, general president of the Laborers’ Inter­ national Union of North America (LIUNA), is a proud de­s­ cendant of Irish immigrants, holds dual American and Irish citizenship, and works tirelessly to build bridges between the Irish and American labour movements. He is a vocal supporter of Sinn Féin and serves as president of New York Friends of Ireland and chairman of DC Friends of Ireland.

Eileen Paisley, Lady Bannside, Baroness Paisley of St George’s, is the widow of Ian Paisley, former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). She became a life peer in 2006.

Jonathan Powell is director of Inter Mediate, the charity he founded in 2011 to work on conflict resolution around the world.

He was chief of staff to Tony Blair from 1995 to 2007, and from 1997 to 2007 was also chief British negotiator on Northern Ireland. He is author of Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland; The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World and Talking to Terrorists: How to End Armed Conflicts.

Dawn Purvis was a former leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) and MLA for East Belfast. Dawn left politics in 2011 and worked with Marie Stopes International to open the first sexual and reproductive health centre offering abortion services on the island of Ireland. Dawn is currently CEO of a housing charity.

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Martin McGuinness: The Man I Knew

Peter Sheridan OBE is a former assistant chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). He is currently chief executive of Cooperation Ireland.

James T. Walsh is a government affairs counsellor in the Was足 h足ington DC office of K&L Gates LLP. He served in the US House of Representatives from 1989 to 2009 and during his tenure was a deputy Republican whip from 1994 to 2006. He was a member of the House Committee on Appropriations from 1993 to 2009 and became chairman of four House Appropriation subcommittees: District of Columbia; Legislative Branch; VA, HUD and Indepen足dent Agencies (NASA, EPA, FEMA, NSF, Selective Service); and Military Quality of Life (which included jurisdiction for Military Base Construction, the Defense Health Program and Housing Accounts) and Vete足rans Affairs.

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Foreword I first considered writing a book about Martin McGuinness some years ago. We’d met on a number of occasions, including the 2010 launch of my book Tales Out of School: St Columb’s College Derry in the 1950s, where he was a guest of honour. But a series of obstacles and distractions intervened and as Martin himself said of his intention to retire from the position of deputy first minister in May 2017, ‘The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.’

His sudden illness and death in March 2017 shocked everyone. Much was written at the time about this youth from the Bogside who became an Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader, a forceful politician and finally deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. What was lacking, in my view, was the direct testimony of people who had met and interacted with him at different points in his life.

In Martin McGuinness: The Man I Knew, I have tried to bring together as wide a range of voices as possible: from those who knew him as a neighbour and an IRA leader, to those who worked with him in the Stormont Executive; from Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald to Eileen Paisley and former Ulster Unionist MLA Michael McGimpsey; from prominent Irish-American Niall O’Dowd to peace talks chairman Senator George Mitchell. If I have a regret, it is that I have not been able to include more voices from political unionism.

The focus of all the interviews is Martin McGuinness, but inevitably contributors range beyond the subject, commenting on the turbulent social and political circumstances in which 15

Martin McGuinness: The Man I Knew

he lived. What I first thought of as digression, in fact provides a background and context for the life of the late deputy first minister. And of course contributors, in telling us about Martin McGuinness, tell as much about themselves. I’d like to thank them all, on both sides of the Atlantic, for giving so generously of their time. I am also indebted to those who facilitated the interviews and to those who provided unforgettable photographs taken at different points in Martin McGuinness’s life.

No book can tell the full story of a person’s life. The modest ambition of this volume is to offer the reader a range of perspectives on a man who helped shape recent history and whose death has left Irish politics poorer.

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