Race for the Presidency Spotlight

Flashing Images. What is it like to go from statesmen are back to book

the man? From basking in the image of peacemaker north of the border

to been vilified? As far as I am concerned, Martin McGuinness is a

terrorist who has stop using his gun. Martin McGuinness has taken a

battering in his campaign to be president of the republic. Go home,

Martin. This is Chinatown, the Irish Republic. You do not

understand it. Tonight, we look back on Martin McGuinness's

campaign for the presidency of the republic. Was it a mistake or a

masterstroke? I get a warm reception whenever I go. Feeding

the polls are wrong? I certainly South Lebanon. Irish troops had

been here on and off for 23 years trying to keep a fragile peace

between hostile factions. They have lost 47 soldiers here in that time

and to date, there President is coming to say thanks. It is Mary

McAleese's last foreign trip as President of the Republic. In two

days' time, the Poles will open. Whoever wins will have a tough act

to follow. -- polls. Mary McAleese set out to build bridges and in her

14 year ten year at is what she has done. She stood with the Queen at a

memorial service in a Flanders there to honour Irishmen who died

in the world wars. Men who had until then effectively been written

out of Irish history. In her second term she and her husband began a

close and fruitful engagement with a northern loyalists. -- nor the

loyalists. An impressive record, but her defining moment came

towards their end of her presidency. One of my most memorable times was

the visit of the Queen and the well family. A very happy and healing

time. History shifted into a different kind of Mode, a mode of

partnership that set a different scene for the future. I was happy

about that. The Queen's visit was proof that Ireland had changed

during Mary McAleese's 10 years. But the presidency has changed as

well. Part of of Mary McAleese's presidency shows that it is a

position of will power were. The question for her successor is how

do you follow that? Several weeks ago Sinn Fein took the view that

one of their number had what it takes to try. Martin McGuinness was

persuaded to run for President of the Republic. The Bogside, Derry. A

send off rally for Martin McGuinness in his Irish

Presidential campaign. Plenty of marches have set off from here over

the decades. But none has aspired to end in Aras an Uachtarain, the

seat of the President of the Republic of Ireland. To some here,

it's all come out of the blue. was as surprised as anybody else

when the announcement was made. I did not think it was part of what

they wanted to do. He had been to the White House, Downing Street, he

has been everywhere. He is personable on the doorsteps and

they did not have anyone to match that. But why run a tall? Perhaps

because Sinn Fein want to become a voice North and South of the border.

Here at the GPO in Dublin you can still see the bullet holes on the

walls from the uprisings. If Martin McGuinness wins, he will be

addressing a public from outside this building. It is a winner-win

election. -- win-win. I think the campaign is about Irish unity and

identifying new grounds and moving on to new ground, particularly

throughout the island. It seems to be going down well. I am deeply

honoured that such a huge crowd has come to send me off on my journey

around Ireland's 32 counties. Martin McGuinness will be trying to

keep sell himself as a statesman. - - sell himself. These people are

traitors. Martin McGuinness will argue that like Mary McAleese he

has the capacity to move history on. But from the outset of his campaign

it is history that is the problem. These days getting to Dublin is

quick and easy, unless you are planning to be president. For

Martin McGuinness the road so far has been a rocky one. In a radio

debate early in the campaign the tone was set. This man says he is

not a member of the IRA. That is not true. Who is the true Martin

McGuinness? Tell the people! It is 10 days into the presidential

campaign and I am on my way to one of the live television debate. At

this early stage in the race it seems to be game on for Martin

McGuinness and Sinn Fein. He is second in the polls with the

potential for his support to grow. At this point in time, things are

unpredictable. Nobody knows where the electric lights, so you get the

sense a good performance here tonight for a slip up could make or

break Martin McGuinness's chances, and the chances of other candidates.

That is how unpredictable it is. But one thing is certain in the

debate tonight, there are bound to be questions about Martin

McGuinness's IRA past. He says he left the 1974, but Ho's Vincent

Brown is not buying it and he makes it clear. Can I refer you to a few

books that have made the point. This book here by Patrick Bishop

and Eamonn Mallie which is sympathetic to you in some regards.

They say you were a member of the IRA in all that time. This book

says you are a member of the IRA. The biography of you, it goes into

it some considerable detail about your membership of the IRA. I am

not finished. All these people say you were in that irate in this

period. Had come will be wrong? because some people jump to

conclusions. Quite a few of those authors you have identified are

completely hostile to Sinn Fein. Martin McGuinness's IRA past has

dominated his campaign. One person in the DUP made a joke to me. He

said that Martin is coming down here and it will be like Mother

Teresa coming. Can you understand why people are interested in your

past? Well, as far as I am concerned, there had been agendas

in the cause of this campaign. There are a minority of people who

are critics and they are focusing on issues that I have no

responsibility for at all. As the officer commanding the Derry part

of the IRA, can you say the bombing. In the near future in a response to

public demand? We always take into consideration up the feelings of

the people of Derry. So what was Martin McGuinness responsible for

during the Troubles? His exact relationship with the IRA has been

a source of controversy throughout the conflict.

Martin McGuinness served two prison sentences for IRA membership, both

in the Republic of Ireland. In the Special Criminal Court in Dublin in

1973, he announced: "I am a member of Oglaigh na Heireann and I am

very very proud of it." A decade later in an interview with the BBC

he seemed to want to put clear blue water between himself and the IRA.

Whoever said I was a member of the IRA? Are you saying that? You have

been named as a member. I never said that.

Then in 2003, Martin McGuinness told the Saville Inquiry into

Bloody Sunday that he was in the IRA, but that his IRA career had

ended in the early 1970s. After 1974, he says, he was a politician.

Many find that claim to be implausible. Most observers and

commentators are Claire in their view that Mr McGuinness's

involvement in the IRA did not end in 1974. He held every major

position. He was Chief of Staff, head of Northern Command. I spoke

to arms suppliers who met him aboard. A everyone knows he was the

senior member of the IRA or otherwise the British would not

have been speaking to him in the 1990s and up until he was in the

Assembly. You said you left the IRA in the early 70s, how comes you had

so much influence on that organisation if you were not in it?

Well, because I have never hidden the fact I was in their IRA in the

early 1970s. I think I have credibility within republicanism. I

have never distance myself on the IRA and was always at the forefront

during the course of the conflict of Republican politics. So, having

given contradictory statements in the past about his relationship to

the IRA, how credible is it that he left the organisation in 1974? I

went to visit Dennis Bradley he was instrumental in setting up a link

between the IRA and British 1970s rather than an activist of

Martin McGuinness became asked that are just in the late 1970s rather

than an activist. He became the chief negotiator and all of that.

But Denis Bradley believes there may be another reason why Martin

McGuinness appears ready to deny parts of his past. There's a real

difficulty which is that if he talks about being in the IRA after

1974 he is in a situation which is subject to arrest. He has to keep

saying, I wasn't there even after what he already admitted to the

Saville tribunal. It's the kind of ambiguity that the peace process in

Northern Ireland has come to accommodate. But the political

establishment in the Republic doesn't seem so forgiving. In

Northern Ireland, people from across the political divide seem to

have come to terms with the idea of Martin McGuinness is Deputy First -

- Deputy First Minister. They may not accept his past but they are

mostly willing to live with it. Eoghan Harris is a former Workers'

party activist, newspaper columnist, and a longstanding critic of Sinn

Fein and Martin McGuinness. In many ways, he feels hard done by and it

is causing Northern nationalists to feel as if they are unwanted in the

Republic. It is not that. It is just that we feel we just do not

have to do business with Martin McGuinness because of his history.

Because we do not have to do business with them, we do not want

to. I say to him, go home, Martin. This is Chinatowns. The Irish

Republic, you do not understand it. Throughout the campaign, opinions

like that have been writ large across sections of the southern

press. And in some places North of the border, they've caused

resentment. A lot of people in Northern Ireland were angry with

the reaction of the South. There is a strange paradox in Irish north-

south relationships. We love each other and take each other. -- hate

each other. Writer and broadcaster Eamon Dunphy believes that

McGuinness is the victim of an orchestrated campaign to discredit

him. The establishment went into the defence because of the reaction.

The prospect of having a Sinn Fein president has a little

uncomfortable for the Irish establishment. They don't want

Martin McGuinness there. In the north, people seem willing to

accept your past. In the south, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Is that right? No. On the ground around the country, I am getting a

phenomenal reaction. Do you think the polls are wrong, you will do

better than the suggest? I would better than the suggest? I would

think so. It is quite clear to anyone who studies the reaction to

my involvement in the election, not just from the establishment parties

but some elements within the media who have a vested interest. Martin

McGuinness isn't the first candidate from North of the border

to have had his background scrutinised in this way. In 1997,

Mary McAleese's campaign for presidency came under a barrage of

criticism after leaked documents suggested her support for Sinn Fein.

For a time it looked as if the revelations might threaten her

campaign. In the end she was forced to make her position clear. Did she

ever vote for Sinn Fein? I have never done that. A lot has changed

here in 14 years. When she was a candidate, she had to make clear

that she had never even voted for Sinn Fein. Now, a man who has been

in prison for IRA membership is running to be her successor. But

the key difference between Mary McAleese and Martin McGuinness was

that she was able to quickly and credibly distance herself from

Republican violence. A distinction that, for the victims of that

violence, makes all the difference in the world. I want justice for my

father. I believe that you know the names of the killers of my father.

The McGuinness campaign has been affected by the voices of people

whose relatives were murdered by the IRA. Journalists persisting

with questions about the past can be brushed off to an extent, but

when voters stop you in the street, as happened in Athlone two weeks

ago, it's a different matter. have given an honest account of it

and my sympathy is with you and your family. I would like to say

that before there is any reconciliation, there has to be

truth. Absolutely. The bodies were produced by the relations and the

Irish public is sector its stomach of the parade of dead soldiers and

Dada. -- garda. There's no doubt that for some, Martin McGuinness's

run for President has re-opened old wounds. My dad was a boxing coach.

Austin Stack's father, Brian, was a prison officer in Portlaoise Jail.

In 1983 when off duty, he was shot in the back of the head by the IRA.

He survived, but with horrendous injuries. After he was discharged

from hospital, his wife and three young sons did their best to care

for him at home. He looks like a completely different man. Paralysed

from the neck down and badly brain- damaged. Brian Stack died 18 months

later from the injuries he sustained in the shooting. We did

try to get on with life but this was difficult for us. I have no

problem with him running for election but I have a duty to tell

him how this affected my family. I am prepared to move on and have

offered him my forgiveness but he has not offered needed dignity of

saying sorry for what is organisation but to my father.

Martin McGuinness says he was a peacemaker, but he was instrumental

in stopping the kind of murders that your family suffered. I would

suggest he was not a peacemaker at all. I would suggest John Hume and

David Trimble and the peacemakers. They were the people who gave up so

much to bring Martin McGuinness and his organisation and from the cold.

As far as I am concerned, Martin McGuinness is just a terrace to a

stop using his gun. -- terrorist. Martin McGuinness has condemned the

murder of Brian Stack, and denied any knowledge of who might have

carried it out. But it remains the case that some victims of IRA

violence find his campaign for the Presidency hard to accept. What do

you say to those who have lost people through IRA violence that

believe that you are running for President is Cas are insensitive?

Some people will find it very difficult and will find it -- be

unable to support me. I fully respect their views. There are

others who do support me and have been victims and their conflict and

people within the Unionist community who have gone on radio

and the North saying that they are supportive of my right to be

involved in this election. They wish me well. Martin McGuinness's

supporters point out that most voters are willing to look beyond

his IRA past when considering him as a candidate. Martin McGuinness

claimed he left the IRA in the early Seventies. People were

worried that he is someone who is saying something that is simply

untrue? Crass in my view. -- only the political class in my view. I

do not believe he left the IRA. I don't care when he left. What I

care about is what became of the IRA. It no longer exists. He had to

stay around to be influential. Sheriff Street area of North Inner

City Dublin. Paddy Keogh is a former championship boxer who's

been training young fighters in this gym for 40 years. Box, Box!

Martin McGuinness visited the club whilst on the campaign trail.

was lovely for him to come into the club. I would love to see him get

in. Of course I'll vote for him. Why? I think he is an honest man

and I think he could unify Ireland. There is a lot of controversy about

his IRA past. Lots of people would not know about it. I would not

think they would think that way. The political climate for Sinn Fein

and Martin McGuinness in the south could hardly be more favourable.

The economy has turned upside down and because of that, so has the

political status quo. 14% unemployment. At least a further

3.6 billion euros in budget cuts to be announced in December. For the

former governing party, Fianna Fail, the bubble has burst. But Sinn Fein

is on the up. Poll research suggests that support for the party

is growing in the South amongst young people, amongst men, and in

more economically disadvantaged areas. In other words, in places

just like this. Is it fair to say there's a lot of anger with the

traditional politics, with Fianna Fail and traditional parties here?

There is an anti-establishment anger. People are losing jobs and

feared that if they lose their jobs, they will lose their homes. There

is an anger out there that Sinn Fein has successfully tapped into.

That anti-establishment tactic continued in last night's final

presidential TV debate, when Martin McGuinness went on the offensive,

attacking frontrunner Sean Gallagher for his alleged

involvement with Fianna Fail fundraising. Today, Sean Gallagher

said that it amounted to a Sinn Fein attempt at political

assassination, and disputed the facts of the allegation. But

McGuinness seemed to land a blow, and he'll be hoping it helps.

Before last night's debate, the polls suggested McGuinness was

ahead of David Norris, Mary Davis, Dana and his fiercest critic Gay

Mitchell. But he was significantly behind Sean Gallagher and Michael D

Higgins. He says it'll be different on the day. I do not actually think

the polls are reflecting the level of support that is there for me. It

will be a better as a surprise come 27th October. On the face of it,

Martin McGuinness's claim that he is well received on the streets

seemed to stand up on the day we joined him at one campaign stop in

County Wicklow. There were plenty of well wishers. Voters we spoke to

were divided, but on the whole the view of him seemed positive. Martin

McGuinness seems to me my front runner. He seems to be trying to

get jobs and he has done a lot of good for the North of Ireland.

not a member of Sinn Fein but they will be voting by him. I do not

agree with him going for the President of Ireland and hopefully

he will not get anywhere. In the current climate, there is a strong

possibility he may succeed. I do not know whether that is a good

thing are not. But it now appears it would take a huge political

upset for Martin McGuinness to be elected. Nonetheless, for Sinn Fein,

he may not need to win for the party to chalk it up as a success.

We have opened up the idea that that some stage, before too long,

Sinn Fein could hold the high office for which he is campaigning.

That is a break through and it is the idea that instead of just being

a marginal party, they could be a party that holds one of the more

prominent high offices in the south. That has now become credible.

week at Hillsborough castle, Mary McAleese made her final visit to

Northern Ireland as President of the Republic. In her speech, she

reflected on how far Ireland, north and south, has come in the last 14

years. Now we know where we're going, the means of transport and

evident. They are a quality, a mutual respect, partnership,

dialogue. Their destination is very obvious - peaceful stop -- piece ft

-- peace. Ireland has changed utterly during the tenure of

President McAleese. And in that time, it seems Martin McGuinness

has changed too throughout this campaign he has taken positions

that Republicans once would have found unthinkable. He has said that

today, the legitimate army of Ireland is the Irish Defence Forces,

not the IRA. He has said he would meet British royalty something that

was perhaps inevitable after the success of the Queen's visit this

year. Perhaps most significantly for Republicans, he has even

accepted some IRA killings as murder. He may have been speaking

in a personal capacity on all of these points, but coming from

I think those are things that Sinn Fein will be unable to roll back

from. If Martin McGuinness does not win on Thursday the big question

will be whether he has been damaged by this campaign. Whether there is

a sense in which he will be coming back north to his job as Deputy

First Minister with his tail between his legs. So far at least

the Unionist politicians have made little of McGuiness's campaign.

Unionism, people give it is nothing to do with us. But they are

learning with - man within nationalism that there are

different views and attitudes. think the DUP, it is not in their

interests to reopen these issues. They are in government with Sinn

Fein. At within republicanism at the campaign is likely to be sold

as another success for step in a Sinn Fein's success in the south. -

- successful. Or people think he will be coming back with his tail

between his legs if he fails? plunged into this campaign and has

raised the profile of Sinn Fein to levels that it has never been to.

So the likelihood is that Martin McGuinness will return to his job

as Deputy First Minister next week, and his Presidential campaign will

be chalked up to experience. He has discovered, perhaps to his surprise,

there are some in the south who just cant see beyond his past.

Perhaps it's another irony of the peace process that it's his former

enemies north of the border who can. I had been at pains to stress that

I draw comparisons between some of my critics and the relationship I

have with Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson, for example. I think