McGuinness: Mother 'traumatised' by IRA link

Martin McGuinness has said his mother was left traumatised after discovering that he was in the IRA when he left a beret in the house.

The former republican commander from Londonderry said he joined in 1970, just as the conflict was igniting in Northern Ireland.

He went on to play an influential role in republicanism and is now Sinn Fein deputy first minister at the Stormont powersharing administration.

He told BBC documentary maker Peter Taylor he did not tell either of his parents he was a member of the armed group.

"My mother found, I think it was a black beret or something like that in the house and immediately traumatised her, I think," he said.

"She did not hit me with it or anything like that or if there were gloves there was no smack across the face with the gloves."

His mother Peggy McGuinness died in 2008 aged 84.

Her son added: "I think that it was a moment in time and she was obviously annoyed at the prospect that all of our lives were changing and maybe mine more dramatically than anybody else's."

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The one-time IRA commander went from the riots of Derry's Bogside during the 1970s to the very heart of government at Stormont, having become one of Sinn Fein's two ministers in the first power-sharing deal.

In 1972, the Army shot dead 13 innocent civil rights protesters in Derry.

The Saville Inquiry said none of those killed in the Bloody Sunday shootings were armed.

One of the inquiry's other findings was that Mr McGuinness was present at the time of the violence and "probably armed with a sub-machine gun" but did not engage in "any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire".

He rose to be a senior figure in the IRA and Sinn Fein and was involved in negotiations with the British government.

After talks culminated in the IRA and loyalist ceasefires of 1994 and the Good Friday Agreement four years later, Mr McGuinness became a minister and serves as deputy first minister at present.

Mr McGuinness has shaken the hand of the Queen in a symbol of reconciliation.

This year, he attended a Windsor Castle banquet hosted by the Queen marking the visit to Britain of Irish President Michael D Higgins.

He has also called for a border poll in Northern Ireland on unification with the Republic of Ireland and said he was fighting politically for reunification.

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