James Martin Pacelli McGuinness MP MLA (Irish: Máirtín Mag Aonghusa;^[1] born in Derry on 23 May 1950) is the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland are the leaders of the Northern Ireland Executive, Northern Irelands home rule government set up in the 1990s as a result of the Good Friday Agreement. ... Open seat redirects here. ... Ian Richard Kyle Paisley (born 6 April 1926), styled The Revd and Rt Hon. ... Mark Henry Durkan (born in 1960) is a Roman Catholic nationalist politician in Northern Ireland and the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. ... The Lord Trimble William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC (born 15 October 1944), known as David Trimble, is a Northern Irish politician who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the first First Minister of Northern Ireland. ... Caitríona Ruane MLA (b. ... Mid Ulster is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... Open seat redirects here. ... is the 121st day of the year (122nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... The Rev. ... The logo of the Northern Ireland Assembly, a six flowered linen or flax plant. ... Mid Ulster is a constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... Open seat redirects here. ... is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 143rd day of the year (144th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other places with similar names, see Derry (disambiguation) and Londonderry (disambiguation). ... Northern Ireland (Irish: , Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a constituent country of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 km², about a sixth of the islands total area). ... For pre-Arthur Griffith use of the political name, see Sinn Féin (19th century). ... For other places with similar names, see Derry (disambiguation) and Londonderry (disambiguation). ... is the 143rd day of the year (144th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Office of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) (Irish: Oifig an Chéad-Aire agus an LeasChéad-Aire, Ulster Scots: Offis o tha Heid Männystèr an tha Heid Männystèr Depute) is the Northern Ireland government department with overall responsibility for the...

A Sinn Féin politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader, McGuinness is the MP for the Mid Ulster constituency, the seat once held by Bernadette Devlin McAliskey. Like all Sinn Féin MP's, McGuinness practises absentionism at Westminster. He is also a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for the same constituency. Following the St Andrews Agreement and the Assembly election in 2007, he became Deputy First Minister to Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader, and First Minister Ian Paisley, on 8 May. He served as Minister for Education in the Northern Ireland Executive between 1999 and 2002. For pre-Arthur Griffith use of the political name, see Sinn Féin (19th century). ... The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann) (IRA; also referred to as the PIRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the Army or the RA.[2]) is an Irish Republican, left wing[3] paramilitary organisation that, until the Belfast Agreement, sought to end Northern... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... Mid Ulster is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... A mural by the Bogside Artists in Derrys Bogside, depicting Devlin Josephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (born April 23, 1947, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, to a Catholic nationalist family), also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is a Northern Ireland republican political activist. ... Abstensionism is the policy of seeking election to a body while refusing to take up the seats or even sitting in an alternative assembly. ... The logo of the Northern Ireland Assembly, a six flowered linen or flax plant. ... The St Andrews Agreement is an agreement proposed by the British and Irish Governments in relation to devolution of power to the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... The third elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly were held on 7 March 2007. ... This article is about the political party in Northern Ireland. ... Ian Richard Kyle Paisley (born 6 April 1926), styled The Revd and Rt Hon. ... is the 128th day of the year (129th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Northern Ireland Executive as established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 is the (currently suspended) executive body for Northern Ireland, answerable to the Northern Ireland Assembly. ...

Provisional IRA activity

He joined the Provisional IRA around 1970 at the age of 20, after The Troubles broke out. In November 2003, he confirmed to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that he had been second-in-command of the Provisional IRA in Derry in 1972, at the time of Bloody Sunday at the age of 21, but he refused to divulge any information about other Provisional IRA members.^[2] For other uses, see Troubles (disambiguation) and Trouble. ... The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, also known as the Saville inquiry, was established in 1998 by Prime Minister Tony Blair after campaigns by families of those killed and injured in Derry on Bloody Sunday for a second inquiry. ... For other places with similar names, see Derry (disambiguation) and Londonderry (disambiguation). ... For other incidents referred to by this name, see Bloody Sunday. ...

A claim was made at the Saville Inquiry that McGuinness was responsible for supplying detonators for nail bombs on Bloody Sunday where 14 civil rights marchers were killed by British soldiers in Derry. Paddy Ward claimed he was the leader of the Fianna, the youth wing of the IRA in January 1972. He claimed McGuinness, the second-in-command of the IRA in the city at the time, and another anonymous member gave him bomb parts on the morning of 30 January, the date planned for the civil rights march. He said his organisation intended to attack city-centre premises in Derry on the day when civilians were shot dead by British soldiers. In response McGuinness noted the claims were "fantasy", while Gerry O’Hara, a Sinn Féin councillor in Derry stated that he and not Ward was the Fianna leader at the time.^[3] The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, also known as the Saville inquiry, was established in 1998 by Prime Minister Tony Blair after campaigns by families of those killed and injured in Derry on Bloody Sunday for a second inquiry. ...

Peter Lilley a British MP, speaking under cover of parliamentary privilege in a Westminster debate on 13 December 2001 recalled that McGuinness while a commandant of the IRA in Derry claimed to have "had a dozen Catholic informers killed".^[4] Peter Bruce Lilley (born August 23, 1943, Hayes, Kent, England, educated at Dulwich College and Clare College, Cambridge) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament MP since 1983. ... Parliamentary privilege, also known as absolute privilege, is a legal mechanism employed within the legislative bodies of countries whose constitutions are based on the Westminster system. ... is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...

McGuinness negotiated alongside Gerry Adams with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Willie Whitelaw, in 1972. He was convicted by the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court in 1973, after being caught with a car containing 250 lb (113 kg) of explosives and nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition. He refused to recognize the court, and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. In the court he declared his membership of the Provisional Irish Republican Army without equivocation: 'We have fought against the killing of our people... I am a member of Óglaigh na hÉireann and very, very proud of it'.^[5] Gerard Adams MP (Irish: [1]; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish Republican politician and abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. ... The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is the British cabinet minister who has responsibility for the government of Northern Ireland. ... William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, KT, CH, MC, PC, DL (June 28, 1918 - July 1, 1999), commonly known as Willie Whitelaw, was a British Conservative politician. ... The Special Criminal Court is a juryless criminal court in the Republic of Ireland which tries terrorist and organized crime cases. ... The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann) (IRA; also referred to as the PIRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the Army or the RA.[2]) is an Irish Republican, left wing[3] paramilitary organisation that, until the Belfast Agreement, sought to end Northern...

After his release, and another conviction in the Republic for IRA membership, he became increasingly prominent in Sinn Féin, the political wing of the IRA. He has been in contact with British intelligence since the 1980 hunger strike.^[6] He was elected to a short-lived assembly at Stormont in 1982, and was then banned from entering Great Britain under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.^[7] A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt or to achieve a goal such as a policy change. ... The Parliament Building of Northern Ireland, known as Stormont because of its location in the Stormont area of Belfast, served as the seat of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and successive Northern Ireland assemblies and conventions. ... The Prevention of Terrorism Acts were a series of Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom from 1974 to 1989, which conferred emergency powers upon police forces where they suspected terrorism. ...

In August 1993, he was the subject of a two part special by the The Cook Report, a Central TV investigative documentary series presented by Roger Cook. It accused him of continuing involvement in IRA activity, of attending an interrogation and of encouraging Frank Hegarty, an informer, to return to Derry from a safe house in England. Hegarty's mother Rose appeared on the programme to tell of telephone calls to McGuinness and of Hegarty's subsequent murder. McGuinness denied her account and denounced the programme saying "I have never been in the IRA. I don't have any sway over the IRA".^[8] The Cook Report was a TV programme shown on ITV through Central TV from 1985 to 1998. ... Central TV logo, 1985-1998 Central Independent Television, or to give it its familiar name, Central Television or Central, is a British Independent Television company that took over from ATV on 1 January 1982. ... Roger Cook (born 6 April 1943 in New Zealand) is an investigative journalist, reporter and broadcaster. ...

In 2005, Michael McDowell, the Irish government Tánaiste, claimed McGuinness, along with Gerry Adams and Martin Ferris, were members of the seven-man IRA Army Council.^[9] McGuinness denied the claims, saying he was no longer an IRA member. Michael McDowell (Irish: ;[1] born 1 May 1951) is a former Irish politician and a founding member of the Progressive Democrats political party. ... The Tánaiste (IPA: ; plural Tánaistí ), or, more formally, An Tánaiste[1], is the deputy prime minister of the Republic of Ireland. ... Martin Ferris (born February 1952) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and a former Provisional IRA member (volunteer). ... The IRA Army Council is the decision-making body of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, more commonly known as the IRA, a paramilitary group dedicated to bringing about the end of the Union between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. ...

Chief negotiator and Minister for Education

He became Sinn Féin's chief negotiator in the time leading to the Belfast Agreement. He became MP for Mid Ulster in 1997, and after the Agreement was concluded, was returned as a member of the Assembly, and nominated by his party for a ministerial position in the power-sharing executive, where he became Minister for Education. One of his controversial acts as Minister for Education was his decision to scrap the 11-plus exam, which he himself had failed as a schoolchild.^[10] He was re-elected to the Westminster Parliament in 2001, but along with the rest of his party has refused to take his seat there (see abstentionism). The Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement and, more rarely, as the Stormont Agreement) was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process. ... The Eleven Plus or Transfer Test was an examination given to students in their last year of primary education in the United Kingdom under the Tripartite System. ... Abstentionism is the policy of seeking election to a body while refusing to take up the seats or even sitting in an alternative assembly. ...

In May 2003, transcripts of telephone calls between McGuinness and British officials including Mo Mowlam, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, were published in a biography of McGuinness entitled From Guns to Government. The tapes had been made by MI5 and the authors of the book were arrested under the Official Secrets Act. The conversations showed an easy and friendly relationship between McGuinness and the British. He joked with Powell about Unionist MPs while Mowlam referred to him as "babe" and discussed her difficulties with Blair. In another transcript he praised Bill Clinton to Gerry Adams.^[11] Marjorie Mo Mowlam (18 September 1949 – 19 August 2005) was a British politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Labour Member of Parliament. ... For other people of the same name, see Tony Blair (disambiguation) Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born May 6, 1953)[1] is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Leader of the Labour Party, and Member of Parliament for the constituency... MI-5 redirects here. ... Official Secrets Act warning sign, Foulness. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... Gerard Adams MP (Irish: [1]; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish Republican politician and abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. ...

Personal Life

McGuinness married Bernadette Canning in 1974. They have four children, two girls and two boys. He is a fan of Derry City F.C.^[12] and the Derry Gaelic football team. Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... Derry City Football Club (Irish: , IPA: ) is an Irish football club based in Derry, Northern Ireland. ... The Derry County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (Irish: Cummann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Contae Doire) or Derry GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic Games in County Derry. ... Gaelic Football (Irish: Peil, Peil Gaelach or Caid ), commonly referred to as football, or Gaelic , is a form of football played mainly in Ireland. ...

References

For pre-Arthur Griffith use of the political name, see Sinn Féin (19th century). ... is the 112th day of the year (113th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Peter Taylor is a British journalist and documentary maker who has covered the Troubles in Northern Ireland for many years. ... Bloomsbury Publishing Plc is an independent, London-based publishing house known for literary novels. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ... is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Guardian. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year (99th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 128th day of the year (129th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• IRA Army Council
• IRA Chiefs of Staff
• Provisional Irish Republican Army
• Gerry Adams
• Sinn Féin
• History of Northern Ireland
• Terrorism
• The Troubles
• Northern Ireland peace process
• Martin Ingram
• Operation Taurus
• Freddie Scappaticci

The IRA Army Council is the decision-making body of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, more commonly known as the IRA, a paramilitary group dedicated to bringing about the end of the Union between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. ... The following is the list of those who have served as Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army in the various incarnations of organisations bearing that name. ... The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Irish: Óglaigh na hÉireann) (IRA; also referred to as the PIRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the Army or the RA.[2]) is an Irish Republican, left wing[3] paramilitary organisation that, until the Belfast Agreement, sought to end Northern... Gerard Adams MP (Irish: [1]; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish Republican politician and abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. ... For pre-Arthur Griffith use of the political name, see Sinn Féin (19th century). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Terrorist redirects here. ... For other uses, see Troubles (disambiguation) and Trouble. ... When discussing the history of Northern Ireland, the peace process is generally considered to cover the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Belfast (or Good Friday) Agreement, and subsequent political developments. ... Martin Ingram is the pseudonym of an ex-British Army soldier who served in the Intelligence Corp and Force Research Unit (FRU). ... Operation Taurus was the name of a planned prosecution by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) against Martin McGuinness. ... Alfredo (Freddie or Frederick) Scappaticci was exposed in the Irish & British media on 11 May 2003, as being a high-level double agent in the Provisional IRA (PIRA), known by the codename Stakeknife. ...

External links

• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Martin McGuinness MP
• TheyWork ForYou.com - Martin McGuinness MP
• 30 May 1972: Official IRA declares ceasefire. A young Martin McGuinness gives the PIRA's reaction - VIDEO