Martin McGuinness showed the power of change

The day, just over a week ago, that Martin McGuinness announced he was resigning as Stormont’s deputy first minister it seemed probable his announcement was just a preliminary one, a precursor to an enforced and complete withdrawal from day-to-day political life.

That day he seemed so unwell, so weakened that even that day’s effort drained him. And so it transpires, illness has forced McGuinness to reluctantly announce his retirement from political life.

Irrespective of how you view his careers — first as an IRA commander and later as a Sinn Féin leader — it would be wrong not to acknowledge that he was one of the most important political figures on this island during the last half century.