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.