McGuinness seeks to launch ‘decade of reconciliation’

MARTIN McGUINNESS says he wants to use the presidency to launch a “decade of reconciliation” on the island.

Speaking at his official campaign launch in Dublin, the Sinn Féin candidate said the term of the next president would coincide with the centenary of many defining moments in Irish history.

“It would be my intention as president to use the next 10 years from 2012 and the centenary of the formation of the Ulster Volunteers, the Home Rule campaign and the signing of the Ulster Covenant and the anniversary of the 1916 Rising to transform this decade of commemorations into a decade of reconciliation,” he said.

“The decade of reconciliation would celebrate the diverse nature of our society, celebrate the peace we now have and commemorate the events of 100 years ago which defined the direction of Ireland up to the present generation.”

Such a process would help “continue to reunify the people of Ireland through reconciliation and respect”, he said.

“That is what will lead to an Ireland that is truly united,” he added, saying he believed this is what the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation would have wanted.

Mr McGuinness launched his campaign in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital on Saturday night. He said if the people voted for him, “they know what they will get”.

He defined his Sinn Féin career and IRA past as “40 years and more of political activism on the streets of Derry, in Downing Street, in the White House, in the Assembly and on Good Friday”.

He reiterated he would not be apologising to anybody for joining the IRA in Derry and his subsequent actions.

He said as president, he would “defend and promote Ireland, uphold the Constitution” and “stand up for sovereignty and freedom”.

Mr McGuinness railed against unnamed “intellectuals” in the south who believed they knew what was happening in the north when they didn’t have the “foggiest idea”.

He said his rival for the presidency, Fine Gael candidate Gay Mitchell, wanted “very badly” to draw him into an “un-presidential confrontation”.

He referenced the televised debate between the seven candidates on Friday night, when Mr Mitchell said Mr McGuinness was “no Nelson Mandela”.

To loud cheers and laughter, Mr McGuinness said: “I never claimed to be Nelson Mandela. I was going to say, but I resisted, that ‘You’re no Michael Collins’.

“I also resisted saying: ‘Gay, if you and I were cast back to 1916, and Michael Collins had to choose who was going over the trenches with him, who do you think he would choose?”