Tá do lá tagtha Martin RIP

realdub (Dublin) - Posts: 8592 - 21/03/2017 14:01:52    1969507

From organising a movement that prevented our own people being ethnically cleansed in the north, street by street, to forcing the most evil empire the world has known to the negotiating table, to leading us into peace and hopefully a shared future and reunification of this island, a truly remarkable man.

RIP Martin.

MedwayIrish (Wexford) - Posts: 2324 - 21/03/2017 14:37:56    1969525

Love, admiration and thanks from the Gaels across the pond

CrubeenBlue (Dublin) - Posts: 28 - 21/03/2017 15:37:46    1969554

RIP Martin. History will judge you kindly.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11231 - 21/03/2017 15:49:55    1969561

There's a deep sense of sadness across the Nationalist community today, we have lost one of our own. Martin, you stood up when others didn't and you led us when we needed direction. You will go down in history alongside Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. May God Bless Your Soul. Rest in Peace Comrade. HOME IS THE GAEL.

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9702 - 21/03/2017 16:07:56    1969568

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 21/03/2017 16:14:34    1969572

Really sad to wake up to the news this morning.Martin is going to be very hard to replace.A proud Derry man and proud of his Innnishowen roots.R.I.P.

gunman (Donegal) - Posts: 1057 - 21/03/2017 16:24:50    1969576

I share the thoughts of a lot of you on this thread. Driving into work this morning a sense of fear and sadness came over me. I'm afraid of the direction the Republican movement in the North will head. Will it follow the way of the DUP and watch the principles disappear for greed. I hope it doesn't. Will republicanism have a leadership that will be willing to bend as much as Martin was for the greater good. There is no doubt that Martin McGuiness was willing to look at the bigger picture and the broader community. It may not seem it to some in the south but the moves he made in relation to policing had a lot of people who would have been supporters of his in the past vying for his blood. What may have seemed like simple gestures were actually quite massive when you consider the backwards nature of a lot of people in Northern Ireland. Shaking the Queens hand and going to a NI soccer game were massive step forwards.

For a man that I never met I am actually quite upset. Martin McGuiness did not know any of my family members but he had a massive impact on our lives and the lives of Catholics up and down the country. At a time when we were been treated as second class citizens in our own country, a time when we could not get a job, we could not vote, we could not get an education, we couldn't even be christened what we wanted to be (my father is known as Sean but on his birth cert his name is John because those over the birth cert refused to accept Sean as a legitimate name.), he fought back. He stood up for the people who were being punished, he fought back for those that were being discriminated against, he fought back for those that were being burned from their homes, he fought back for those who were considered legitimate targets by security forces and loyalist paramilitaries based on where they went on a Sunday morning. He also had the vision to realise that you could only fight back so much before you had to talk to your enemy and work out your differences from there.

There are only two politicians this island has produced that I feel cared about it's citizens. Both are now deceased, one was David Ervine, the other Martin McGuiness. This island is definitely the poorer for both being deceased. It is now time for those with the capabilities to stand up and deliver like both of these men did.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 21/03/2017 16:32:22    1969578

What a man. What a legend. RIP Martin.

Brolly (Monaghan) - Posts: 4472 - 21/03/2017 16:38:26    1969581

lilywhite1 (Kildare) - Posts: 2990 - 21/03/2017 16:53:21    1969588

I see the wannabe Englishmen are as sad and childish as they are deluded.

I consider you similar to the bigots up here and across the water who have been gloating all day on social media.

It is obviously a hugely sad day for the McGuinness family but also for nationalism and republicanism as others have said.

Hopefully the respect and admiration from his community will outshine the bigots and will help the family get through the difficult days and weeks ahead.

I certainly never agreed with everything he did in recent years, however, I understood it and he never lost my respect.

He was a formidable foe on the streets and around the negotiating table....a soldier with a steely eye and a peacemaker with a warm hand!

RIP Martin

bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts: 1852 - 21/03/2017 17:01:47    1969590

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 21/03/2017 17:12:41    1969596

Disliking condolence messages, explain yourselves lads and lassies.

Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12120 - 21/03/2017 17:33:55    1969602

sean og (Armagh) - Posts: 1053 - 21/03/2017 17:35:27    1969605

Genuinely bemused here. Not one single negative comment on Martin McGuiness yet plenty of people willing to downvote posts that speak positively of the man. It's quite clear that those that are down voting wouldn't be fit to tie the shoe laces of McGuiness. You may not agree with his politics, you may not agree with his actions in his earlier years or even those in his later years. But one thing is for sure is that McGuiness has done more for the people of this Island, no matter of their creed, sex or colour. Can the same be said of a lot more of our politicians.

Without a shadow of a doubt the IRA would have went to war, anyone who says differently is a fool. Would someone other than McGuiness have been capable of getting the provisional movement to decommission their weapons and move forward for the greater good of the community?

I would ask those that are downvoting posts to at least have the balls to put your name to it.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 21/03/2017 17:37:32    1969608

Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 21/03/2017 17:44:10    1969610

I had great respect for McGuinness while I disagree with his armed struggle. His honesty and huge work towards building a better future was hugely commendable.

RIP. He will be sadly missed

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4624 - 21/03/2017 18:18:29    1969624

May he rest in peace, as a politican and a man we in the South have no-one to match him, ye were lucky to have him up in the North

updwell (Limerick) - Posts: 817 - 21/03/2017 18:34:57    1969635

Ar dheis De a raibh a h-anam dilis

suckvalleypaddy (Galway) - Posts: 1669 - 21/03/2017 19:19:25    1969655

I'm not a republican or a sinn feiner but I recognise and appreciate McGuiness' contribution to the way the country is today. Power sharing with Ian Mór for all those years was unimaginable when I was a bitter teenager, but they got on with it and we've enjoyed an extended period of relative normality. He really put the Tioc in the chuckle brothers and that's how I will remember him.

Suas Sios (None) - Posts: 1550 - 21/03/2017 21:16:13    1969729