Martin McGuinness emotional at Bogside rally

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness has described his sadness at not standing for re-election at a solidarity rally in the Bogside area of Londonderry.

The Foyle MLA and former deputy First Minister was addressing local people on Thursday night after giving media interviews to confirm that he was retiring from Stormont politics.

“At the end of the day I had to make a decision and I had to be honest with myself, the question I had to ask myself was I physically able or capable of fighting an intensive five or six week election in the current state that I’m in and the answer to that was no,” Mr McGuinness said.

“So the only fair thing to do which I have done today was to make it clear that I won’t unfortunately, even though it breaks my heart, that I won’t have an opportunity to again ask the people of Foyle to support me in what will be a critical election.”