BELFAST (Reuters) - Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, a key figure throughout five decades of conflict and peace in Northern Ireland, said on Thursday he was bowing out of politics and would not lead his nationalist party into elections in March.

Northern Ireland's former Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness leaves Assembly at Parliament Buildings in Stormont in Belfast, Northern Ireland, January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

The 66-year-old former IRA commander said illness and the current political crisis, triggered by his own resignation this month as deputy first minister, had led to him to step down several months earlier than planned.

He signaled that party president Gerry Adams was also preparing to make way for a successor.

The departure of the pair, key players in Northern Ireland’s 30 years of Protestant-Catholic “Troubles” and in forging the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that largely ended them, would mark a generational change in Sinn Fein.

The party remains committed to breaking with Britain and uniting with the Irish Republic, though that is anathema to Northern Ireland’s majority Protestants.

“Last year, Gerry Adams and I confirmed that we had a plan in place for transition to a new leadership. For my part, it was my intention to step aside in May this year,” McGuinness said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, my health and the current crisis have overtaken this timeframe. I am not physically able to continue in my current role and have therefore decided to make way for a new leader.”

McGuinness had been deputy first minister for a decade before quitting this month in protest at First Minister Arlene Foster’s handling of a controversial green-energy scheme. His resignation led to the collapse of the power-sharing government at Stormont, the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In recent weeks, McGuinness had taken a break from some duties due to what he described as a very serious illness. He said he intends to overcome it but that it will take some time.

“As Deputy First Minister for almost a decade Martin McGuinness has been a major figure at Stormont,” said Foster, who survived an IRA bomb attack on a school bus at the age of 17. “While never forgetting the past, I believe the work at Stormont provided the foundations for our relative peace today.”

COMMANDER AND NEGOTIATOR

McGuinness abandoned a butcher’s apprenticeship in 1970 to join the Irish Republican Army. He played a key role in both the start and end of Northern Ireland’s 30-year conflict, in which some 3,600 people were killed.

He joined the guerrilla group as it began its bloody campaign against British rule and later admitted he was second-in-command in Londonderry on “Bloody Sunday” - the day in 1972 when British troops in the city killed 14 unarmed marchers, ushering in the most intense phase of the Troubles.

In the 1980s, McGuinness emerged alongside Adams as a key architect in the electoral rise of Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political ally, and became the party’s chief negotiator in peace talks that led to the 1998 peace deal.

In government, he formed a surprisingly close working relationship with the late Ian Paisley, the firebrand Protestant cleric turned first minister, and sought to heal old wounds with gestures like shaking hands with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in 2012.

“I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Martin. He and I first met over 45 years ago behind the barricades in Free Derry and have been friends and comrades since,” said Adams, who tweeted that he was crying in his car after the announcement.

Britain’s Northern Ireland minister James Brokenshire thanked McGuinness on behalf of the British government for his work in securing a number of significant political agreements.

Mary McAleese, who was president of Ireland when peace was agreed, said his loss to Northern Irish politics would be huge.

Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan said: “Through word and deed, Martin sought to reach out to those who - for understandable reasons - would have regarded his past with fear, anger and suspicion.”

Among younger colleagues in contention to succeed him, former ministers Conor Murphy and Michelle O’Neill have played more prominent roles since McGuinness took a break. McGuinness said Sinn Fein would announce his successor next week.

The current crisis risks paralyzing the region’s response to Britain’s exit from the European Union as London prepares for divorce talks. Sinn Fein has suggested the May elections will be followed by lengthy renegotiations on the terms of the power-sharing administration, with the prospect of a return of its 1.8 million people to direct rule from London if the talks fail.

McGuinness said he was determined to continue playing a role in the “vitally important” next stages of the peace process and help Sinn Fein achieve its ultimate goal of a united Ireland.

“I don’t really care how history assesses me but I’m very proud of where I’ve come from,” McGuinness told Irish national broadcaster RTE. “Hopefully they’ll be waiting a while yet.”</s>McGuinness stepped down as deputy first minister of the region on January 10 in protest of the handling of an energy scheme by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). That decision prompted a snap Northern Ireland Assembly election that is due to be held March 2.

"Unfortunately, my health and the current crisis have overtaken this timeframe and I am stepping down from my role to make way for a new leader of Sinn Féin in the North," he said.

McGuinness said he's determined to play a "full and enthusiastic" role as a Sinn Fein activist, and reiterated his support for the unification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

"It remains my own personal and political ambition to break the link with Britain and to unite all who share this island under the common banner of Irish men and women." 3 of us in the car crying over Martin McGuinness. — Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) January 19, 2017 Among the first to react to the news was Sinn Fein colleague Gerry Adams. "I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Martin McGuinness. He and I first met over 45 years ago behind the barricades in Free Derry and we have been friends and comrades since that time."</s>Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander and until last week, the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, announced Thursday he is retiring from politics.

McGuinness stepped down as deputy first minister of the region on January 10 in protest of the handling of an energy scheme by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). That decision prompted a snap Northern Ireland Assembly election that is due to be held March 2.

In a statement released Thursday, McGuinness said he had originally planned to step down in May.

“Unfortunately, my health and the current crisis have overtaken this timeframe and I am stepping down from my role to make way for a new leader of Sinn Féin in the North,” he said.

McGuinness said he’s determined to play a “full and enthusiastic” role as a Sinn Fein activist, and reiterated his support for the unification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“It remains my own personal and political ambition to break the link with Britain and to unite all who share this island under the common banner of Irish men and women.”

Among the first to react to the news was Sinn Fein colleague Gerry Adams.

“I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Martin McGuinness. He and I first met over 45 years ago behind the barricades in Free Derry and we have been friends and comrades since that time.”</s>On Thursday Martin McGuinness signalled the end of an era in modern Irish politics by announcing he will not stand in the Assembly elections in March and that he will now retire from frontline electoral politics.

The Sinn Féin leader spoke to the ‘Journal’ at the Bishop’s Gate Hotel this afternoon.

See also: Martin McGuinness to retire from frontline electoral politics

And: Timeline: Martin McGuinness</s>Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, the former deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, has told the Press Association he is quitting frontline politics to concentrate on recovering from “a very serious illness”.</s>Martin McGuinness bowing out is a significant moment in Irish politics and, it can’t be denied, in modern Irish history too.

It has been the leadership, strategic sense and the personalities of the Adams-McGuinness partnership that has in the main been responsible for Sinn Féin’s success. Now it is just Gerry Adams.

There will be mixed views about McGuinness, the Derry republican who was a ruthless commander of an organisation responsible for some 1,800 killings during the Troubles.

Many hundreds of them were civilians who had no bearing on the conflict. Their bereaved relations might not be so sanguine or generous about McGuinness.

Equally, the widows, spouses, partners, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers of British soldiers and RUC officers shot dead or blown up by the IRA might care little for McGuinness’s exiting of political life. The same might be said about the families of alleged informers dumped in ditches by the IRA.

As mentioned here before, British army officers acknowledged that McGuinness was “Sandhurst material”, that he was a natural leader of men and women. He commanded loyalty and got loyalty.

That was recognised as early as 1972 when McGuinness, aged just 22, was part of a senior IRA delegation that secretly met the then northern secretary, William Whitelaw, in London.

In his valedictory statement on Thursday night, McGuinness said it remained his “own personal and political ambition to break the link with Britain and to unite all who share this island under the common banner of Irish men and women”.

And, despite some Sinn Féin rewriting of Troubles history to characterise the IRA as a civil rights organisation, that was what the IRA was about, getting the “Brits out”. That didn’t happen.

So, while McGuinness was a “cutting edge” figure in the IRA, the paramilitary campaign failed.

But the organisation’s political campaign succeeded, and McGuinness was central to that success.

As a former IRA chief of staff and colleague of McGuinness, the late John Kelly was wont to say, “It wasn’t the IRA war that brought Sinn Féin success, it was the IRA peace.” It took republicans a long time to see that.

McGuinness was a positive figure in politics, a force for good. The Adams-McGuinness nexus is an interesting one: Adams, the Machiavellian figure, the long-game republican; McGuinness, the leader with an occasional short fuse but companionable and quick to mend fences.

Republicans will miss him as their chief representative in the North, but unionists with political sense may have reason to miss him too.

His good humour and conciliatory political nature allowed democratic politics, after years of stop-start government following from the 1998 Belfast Agreement, to take root and grow - although never the sturdiest of plants.

Political nous matters - but so does personality. McGuinness had oodles of it. He used that attribute to strike the most astonishing and genuine friendship with Ian Paisley.

There was symmetry to why their relationship worked: they had both fought terrible battles, wreaked awful damage, and now was the time to make politics work, and where possible to make society work.

He worked too with Robinson’s successor Peter Robinson, and while they had some tricky moments, that arrangement too ended well.

McGuinness was conscious of symbolic gestures, as was Robinson on occasion.

McGuinness regularly crossed the peace line, reaching out to unionists, gaining respect slowly in places where previously he would have met anger and hatred.

Sectarianism is still there, but it doesn’t feel as ingrained in Northern society any more, and McGuinness played his part in that slow thaw.

It’s a pity that what he started building up with Ian Paisley almost 10 years ago has crumbled.

It will be for another to lead Sinn Féin in the North in trying to reconstruct it - whether that person be Michelle O’Neill, Conor Murphy, John O’Dowd, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, or some other figure that Gerry Adams might push into the political limelight.

Perhaps had Arlene Foster heeded the advice of McGuinness, he would be leaving more stable political architecture behind. Or perhaps another deeper political game was being played by Sinn Féin, as the DUP suspects, that made a deal impossible over recent weeks.

Regardless, this is a big moment, as a major political figure exits the stage. His generosity of spirit helped politics and community relations over the past 10 years. The hope now is that this generosity won’t be lost.

There was some evidence of it on Thursday night.

Foster, who must be under considerable political and personal pressure, issued a generous statement acknowledging their differences but describing McGuinness as a “major figure at Stormont”.

“Despite all that has happened I wish Martin McGuinness a speedy recovery and that he and his wife are able to enjoy time with their family away from the relentless focus of public life,” she said.

Kind words, that most people will echo, and badly needed at this pivotal time.</s>An emotional Martin McGuinness spoke to friends and comrades in Derry this evening.

“I’ll be a republican 'till the day I die and I’m going to work for Sinn Féin 'till the day I die," he said.

“I’ll always be very proud to be from the Bogside.

“I’ve ended up in many famous places throughout the world. The White House, the Oval Office, but my heart lies in the Bogside.”

Tribute are being paid to Martin McGuinness this evening, as he plans to step aside as Deputy First Minister in May, ten years after first taking the role.

Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams, is leading tributes to Martin McGuinness after he announced he is stepping down as the party's leader in Northern Ireland.

"Whatever people may think of Martin McGuinness, I’m sure that most people would concede that for ten years he broke his back trying to make that office work," Adams said.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that he acknowledges the remarkable political journey that Martin McGuinness has undertaken.

“I am sorry to learn that Martin McGuinness has decided not to contest the forthcoming election due to his poor health.

“While Martin and I may not always have seen eye-to-eye on every issue, I readily acknowledge the remarkable political journey that he has undertaken.

“I know that Martin remains firmly committed to delivering a peaceful and prosperous society for all of the people of Northern Ireland.

“He was one of the key architects of the Good Friday Agreement, and a tireless and committed champion of the Peace Process.

“I wish Martin and his family well for the future and I hope that his health will now be his absolute priority in the time ahead.”

Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster has wished Martin McGuinness a speedy recovery and praised his contribution to the "good things" they achieved while in government together.

Mrs Foster said: "Martin McGuinness and I have had our political differences and we come from very different angles of vision.

"While the current political situation is not what any of us would wish and there is much work to be done to return stable government to Northern Ireland I nonetheless value the good things achieved by the outgoing Executive and the contribution made by Mr McGuinness to it.

"Despite all that has happened I wish Martin McGuinness a speedy recovery and that he and his wife are able to enjoy time with their family away from the relentless focus of public life."

Former First Minister Peter Robinson has said he is praying for Martin McGuinness to overcome his serious illness.

The ex-Democratic Unionist leader also said he hopes his former power-sharing partner and long-time political foe has time to enjoy the simple things in life.

In a statement to the Press Association he said: "Martin will discover, as I have, that there is much to rejoice in having more time with family, and less stress with the removal of the responsibilities of office.

"I pray that he overcomes his health challenges and has the time to do the simple things I know he loves - spending time with his grandchildren, fishing and watching football."

The Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan has also wished him well and says his positive contribution to political discourse on the island will be missed.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD for Waterford David Cullinane has been looking at Martin McGuinness's legacy: “Over the next number of days the focus obviously will be on the legacy of Martin McGuinness.

"And I see him obviouisly as a peacemaker, a statesman, as someone who has made an enormous contribution to politics both north and south.

"And I think that his legacy will be marked out by his incredible leadership, the fact that he was able to reach out to Unionists, the people who would not vote for him.

"He certainly saw himself as a leader and as a politician who would represent all of the people of Ireland.

Mary Lou McDonald said, "words can't fully express the thanks we owe you the confidence you give us how proud we are of you."</s>Former Sinn Féin deputy first minister Martin McGuinness has announced that he is not standing in the forthcoming Assembly elections for Foyle.

The 66-year-old former IRA leader, who is being treated for a rare heart condition, said on Thursday evening that “after long and careful consideration” he had decided it was “time for a new generation of republicans to lead us into this election and the negotiations that will follow”.

Mr McGuinness said he had planned to step down in May this year, which would have marked the 10th anniversary since he and the late Ian Paisley took over the respective posts of deputy first minister and first minister.

“Unfortunately, my health and the current crisis have overtaken this timeframe and I am stepping down from my role to make way for a new leader of Sinn Féin in the North,” said Mr McGuinness.

Mr McGuinness’s resignation as deputy first minister last Monday week in protest at DUP leader Arlene Foster’s refusal to stand aside over the cash-for-ash crisis prompted this week’s crash of Stormont and the calling of elections for March 2nd.

“Over the last 10 years I have worked tirelessly to make powersharing work,” said Mr McGuinness on Thursday.

“The institutions are now in a deep crisis as a result of recent events and we are facing into an election when the people will have their say,” he added.

Mr McGuinness said Sinn Féin was a party in constant development, renewal and evolution.

“Our struggle for freedom and equality stretches back to the United Ireland movement of the 1790s. I am deeply proud of the democratic influences that Ulster Presbyterianism contributed to the Irish republican tradition,” he said.

“It remains my own personal and political ambition to break the link with Britain and to unite all who share this island under the common banner of Irish men and women,” he added.

He continued, “I am deeply proud of the generation of Irish republicans that came before us. A generation that kept the vision of freedom alive through the difficult post-partition era when they faced unrelenting repression and persecution from the Ulster Unionist Party in an apartheid Orange state.

“I have been privileged to be part of the generation that broke that apartheid state apart and to have been part of a Sinn Féin leadership that delivered peace and radical change. There are more republicans today than at any time in my generation.”

Mr McGuinness said his “obvious health issues” were being addressed by a superb team of national health service doctors and nurses.

“But I want to be open and honest with my friends and colleagues in Sinn Féin, with the electorate of Foyle and with the wider community beyond my own constituency. I also want to be fair to my family and to the teams of carers who are doing their best to provide me with the treatment I now require to deal with this very serious medical condition, which I am very determined to overcome,” he said.

“Unfortunately, I am not physically able to continue in my current role and have therefore decided to make way for a new leader.”

Mr McGuinness said that as a Sinn Féin activist he would continue to “play a full and enthusiastic part in that essential process of building bridges, of dialogue and of reconciliation between our still divided people”.

“Despite the current difficulties and challenges, I am confident and optimistic about the future. We have faced more difficult times and found a way forward. As a society we have made enormous progress. We must continue to move forward. Dialogue is the only option.”</s>Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness has admitted he is seriously ill and has decided to quit frontline politics because he is not “in a physical state” to fight an election campaign.

Mr McGuinness resigned as Northern Ireland's deputy first minister last week in protest against the handling of a botched energy scheme, forcing a snap election.

He has now revealed that after "a lot of thinking" he will not be contesting those elections due to ill health.</s>Tributes are being paid to Martin McGuinness, who’s stepping down from active politics in the North.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny says he is sorry to learn that the former Deputy First Minister has decided not to contest the forthcoming election due to poor health.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has extended his best wishes, and Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan says his positive contribution to political discourse on the island will be missed.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has expressed heartfelt thanks to Mr McGuinness.

Mr McGuinness says he’s confident that a new generation of leaders can take his place within Sinn Féin:
Sinn Féin politician Martin McGuinness retires from politics for health reasons.