My war with Britain is over says McGuinness

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness has said that his "war" with Britain is over.

The former Education Minister, and convicted member of the IRA, makes his comments in a frank interview with the BBC due to be aired tonight.

"My job as a political leader is to prevent war," he said. "My job is to continue to ensure political circumstances which will never again see British soldiers or members of the IRA lose their lives as a result of political conflict."

The noises coming from the leadership of Sinn Fein of late are a variation on a theme that their own 'personal' struggles are over and that the IRA will eventually be stood down.

Earlier this month, veteran republican Martin Meehan said the "war had… been over for some time" during an interview. And last week, party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said that he could see the IRA "being removed from the equation".

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams repeated those sentiments last weekend during a speech in Monaghan when he talked of a "future without the IRA".

However, Mr McGuinness's statement is a stark reminder as to how far militant republicanism has come, as the image of Mr McGuinness as dove within the republican movement is a far cry from when the troubles were at their height in the seventies – when he rose to head the IRA's Northern Command.

Martin McGuinness's involvement in the IRA, unlike Gerry Adams, is a matter of public record. In 1973, Martin McGuinness, aged 22, told the jury at his Dublin trial into terrorist-related activities that he was "a member of Oglaigh na Eireann (IRA) and very, very proud of it".

In his headline grabbing testimony to the Saville Inquiry in May last year, the Sinn Fein chief negotiator admitted that he was the IRA's second in command in Londonderry at the time of the Bloody Sunday shootings in January 1972.

The British government has long recognised Martin McGuinness as someone they could talk peace with – having involved him in a number of secret talks since the mid-70s. Former army agent Willie Carlin and ex-MI6 officer Michael Oatley, who both knew Mr McGuinness well, have said that he was viewed as instrumental in the IRA's shift away from the 'armed struggle'.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said as much in his speech on October 18, adding that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness "have taken huge risks to try to bury the past".

A well-respected figure within republicanism, Mr McGuinness is thought to have taken over as chief of staff of the IRA last year in order to maintain the group's path away from violence.

(GMcG)