Few people like Martin McGuinness, who died at the 21 hospital in Belfast, best embodied the history of Northern Ireland. He had 66 years and was hospitalized due to a rare genetic heart disease, which led him to resign as deputy prime minister in the coalition government with unionists early in the new year.
A life always in the forefront of that of McGuinnes, with a story, his like that of many others, closely linked to the Irish republican identity. His hometown, Derry, already makes it clear how strong the identity issues are for that portion of the Irish island: on the one hand the Republicans who call it Derry, while on the other the unionists who continue to call it by the name of Londonderry. But that's not all, Derry, or Londonderry if you prefer, is one of the cities that was most affected by the violence, both by the IRA and by His Majesty's Army. An example above all: the Bloody Sunday, when the 1º battalion of the British army paratroop regiment opened fire on a peaceful demonstration, killing 14 unarmed civilians. In that 30 of January of 1972, unforgettable for those who lived it on his own skin, McGuinness was the deputy commander of the local IRA detachment, the first step in the political career that led him, obviously, to the ranks of the Sinn Féin, the political arm of the IRA. It was a passage that in some ways forced what McGuinness did, which allowed him to very quickly become the right-hand man of the party leader, Gerry Adams, the one who had the task of announcing his death.
A passionate Republican, who has worked throughout his political career to bring peace to his land of Ireland and for a peaceful and political reunification of the country. It is no coincidence that McGuinness, along with Adams, was one of the proponents, in the middle of the 80 years, of the radical change of political line both within the Provisional IRA both within the Sinn Féin: the traditional policy of abstention from the polls and from North Irish and Irish politics was finally closed. A new cycle was opened for the Sinn Féin and for McGuinness who was appointed chief negotiator of the movement to the negotiations that led to the Good Friday agreements of the 1998, which put an end to the long season of armed struggle and violent repression.
A new chapter had opened in the history of Northern Ireland, based on the sharing of power, even with the "hated" unionists of the DUP (Union Democratic Party). It is from this base that it has been possible to build an unbroken series of coalition governments, which see McGuinness always as a protagonist on the political scene. But to this reconciliation with the unionists, a further example is the post of deputy prime minister in the 2007 under the leadership of Ian Paisley, the historical loyalist leader of the DUP, has always been joined by the struggle, albeit veiled, continuing to His Majesty's Kingdom. In fact McGuinness, in line with his party, from the 1997 has never occupied his seat in Westminster following the dogma of the Irish Republicans: the complete abstention from sitting in the seats of the English, Irish and North Irish Parliaments. But, while for the last two this dogma has fallen, in the 1986 and in the 1998 respectively, the one against the main parliament of the British Crown has not yet fallen and, perhaps, it will never be canceled.
A rapprochement with McGuinness had occurred, for the first time, in the 2012 when he shook hands with Queen Elizabeth II, as well as in their last meeting last year, when McGuinness was Northern Ireland's prime minister. A peace that never existed between Sinn Féin and the United Kingdom, but judging by the messages of condolence arriving from the other side of the Irish Sea, first of all the one sent by Premier Theresa May following Buckingham Palace's announcement to send a letter of condolence to the family , suggests how much McQuinness has done for dialogue and for peace between the two peoples. A very important loss for Northern Ireland, especially at a crucial moment like the one the UK is experiencing, driven by internal Scottish independence forces that could rekindle the fuse of a conflict, between republicans and unionists, extinguished for almost twenty years years.
