Ex-IRA leader, Martin McGuinness launched his campaign to be elected Ireland's next president on Monday.
McGuinness, currently the first minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, was the commander in the Irish Republican Army for the city of Londonderry. He was jailed in the 1970s, charged with possession of bomb-making equipment and ammunition.
Criticising the 'media fixation' on his time with the IRA, McGuinness stated,
“I don’t think I would have been invited to the Oval Office on three occasions to meet with three American presidents, or to Johannesburg to meet with Nelson Mandela, or to Brussels to meet with the president of the European Union, and indeed many other countries throughout the world, if people thought that my credentials in relation to the search for peace were in any way in doubt.”
Mc Guinness is considered to have been an integral part to the signing of the Good Friday agreement in 1998.
The Agreement acknowledged that the views of both sides were legitimate.
It included provisions for the release of paramilitary prisoners, as well as the 'normalisation' of the British security forces in Northern Ireland. Specifically it involved the removal of special emergency powers in Northern Ireland, reduction in the numbers of British armed forces deployed in Northern Ireland and the removal of British security installations.
In 2006, McGuinness, as then Chief Negotiator of Sinn Fein, met with senior members of the LTTE. The visit took place shortly after the EU proscribed the LTTE.
McGuinness had stated,
“[It was a] huge mistake for the EU leaders to demonize the LTTE and the political leaders of the Tamil people,”
“In a peace process all sides should be treated equally and with respect.”
See "McGuinness meets LTTE leaders" (July 2006)
