:00:00. > :00:00.Hello and welcome to BBC Newsline. Washington.
:00:00. > :00:08.A former Provisional IRA commander who ended up shaking
:00:09. > :00:11.hands with the Queen, Martin McGuinness today said
:00:12. > :00:13.he will not be standing again for election.
:00:14. > :00:16.He's been one of the dominant figures of the last five decades.
:00:17. > :00:21.In recent weeks, despite a serious health condition, the 65-year-old
:00:22. > :00:24.is said to have had a key role in Sinn Fein's decision
:00:25. > :00:27.to prompt a snap election, triggered by his resignation.
:00:28. > :00:31.Tonight, friends and neighbours of Martin McGuinness threw
:00:32. > :00:33.a surprise reception for him at his home in the Bogside.
:00:34. > :00:36.Hundreds of people gathered outside his house where an emotional
:00:37. > :00:44.Mr McGuinness and his wife were surrounded by family.
:00:45. > :00:51.The only fair thing to do, which I have done today, was to make it
:00:52. > :01:04.clear that I will not unfortunately, even though it breaks my heart, my
:01:05. > :01:10.heart lies in the Bogside. Our political editor
:01:11. > :01:12.Mark Devenport has been speaking to Martin McGuinness and he first
:01:13. > :01:15.asked him why he'd decided not In the aftermath of the Assembly
:01:16. > :01:18.elections last year I was honoured to be asked to stay
:01:19. > :01:24.on as Deputy First Minister. I said I would do it
:01:25. > :01:28.for a further year, bringing me to the 8th of May this year,
:01:29. > :01:34.which would've been the tenth anniversary of going
:01:35. > :01:37.into government with Ian Paisley, I thought I was an appropriate time
:01:38. > :01:42.for me to stand aside as Deputy First Minister and make
:01:43. > :01:45.way for the new Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister, but, of course,
:01:46. > :01:51.the best laid plans of mice and men We have had two situations to deal
:01:52. > :01:58.with, I have had two One is the crisis at Stormont,
:01:59. > :02:02.and my own health problems, Really, I have been dealing
:02:03. > :02:11.with this health situation But I am very determined
:02:12. > :02:23.to overcome it. The question I ask myself is,
:02:24. > :02:26.are you capable, physically capable -- of fighting this election
:02:27. > :02:35.with the intensity that The honest answer is I am not
:02:36. > :02:39.physically capable or able to fight this election,
:02:40. > :02:42.so I will not be a candidate Aren't you disappointed
:02:43. > :02:47.that your decision to retire from politics has come at the time
:02:48. > :02:54.when the Stormont institutions have effectively collapsed and how hard
:02:55. > :02:57.do you think it will be If there is a will to face up to not
:02:58. > :03:13.go back to the status quo. I think that poses particular
:03:14. > :03:15.challenges to everybody, but more so to the DUP in terms
:03:16. > :03:18.of recognising that serious questions have been asked
:03:19. > :03:20.about the handling of different situations in the course
:03:21. > :03:22.of recent times, so I think I don't actually remember the last
:03:23. > :03:28.time I heard a member of the DUP use A particular disappointment to me
:03:29. > :03:40.in this, a small point in relation to the big acts of reconciliation
:03:41. > :03:42.I have been involved in, prior to the European Championships,
:03:43. > :03:45.the soccer championships in France this year, we suggested to the DUP
:03:46. > :03:57.that Arlene and I should travel to France and go together
:03:58. > :03:59.to a Northern Ireland game, I wasn't asking her to go
:04:00. > :04:04.to 1916 commemoration, It was an opportunity
:04:05. > :04:08.to reach out and Arlene went to the Northern Ireland match
:04:09. > :04:16.and I went to both. Your journey has been
:04:17. > :04:18.remarkable from the early days when you are open about your role
:04:19. > :04:21.within the IRA, to the later days when you have been
:04:22. > :04:24.seen as a peacemaker. Looking back on that,
:04:25. > :04:26.do you regret anything about your endorsement of the use
:04:27. > :04:37.of violence to further your errands? --
:04:38. > :04:39.of violence to further your aims? People need to look
:04:40. > :04:41.at the circumstances in the city It was a city where people
:04:42. > :04:46.were being murdered at the RUC, murdered wholesale as they were
:04:47. > :04:48.on Bloody Sunday, by The Parachute Regiment,
:04:49. > :04:50.and the fact that many young people like myself, supported by many
:04:51. > :04:53.thousands of people in the city, not saying there was a majority,
:04:54. > :04:55.decided to fight back. Mervyn Jess looks back
:04:56. > :05:03.on a life that went He started out as an IRA leader
:05:04. > :05:10.from the Bogside in Derry and became the Deputy First Minister
:05:11. > :05:11.of the power-sharing It was in the early 1970s that
:05:12. > :05:15.Martin McGuinness first came As the officer commanding the Derry
:05:16. > :05:25.part of the IRA operation, can't you say if the bombing
:05:26. > :05:28.is likely to stop the near future We will always take
:05:29. > :05:31.into consideration the feelings Raised in the Bogside in the early
:05:32. > :05:45.1950s as one of a large Catholic nationalist family,
:05:46. > :05:46.his father, William, was a foundry worker
:05:47. > :05:49.and his mother Peggy a housewife As conflict grew in the city,
:05:50. > :05:54.young Martin McGuinness join the IRA He was part of an Irish delegation
:05:55. > :05:58.involved with secret talks Reports that I am chief of staff
:05:59. > :06:21.in the IRA are untrue The bombings and killings continued
:06:22. > :06:25.and by the early 1980s Martin McGuinness was standing
:06:26. > :06:27.for election in Jim prior's assembly, but did not
:06:28. > :06:29.renounce the IRA campaign. At the end of the day it will be
:06:30. > :06:33.the cutting edge of IRA As part of the Sinn Fein peace
:06:34. > :06:36.strategy had been involved in protracted and secret talks
:06:37. > :06:47.with the British government. In January 2007, Sinn Fein
:06:48. > :06:50.through its support behind the new Police Service
:06:51. > :06:51.of Northern Ireland, paving the way for its appointment
:06:52. > :06:53.as Deputy First Minister, along with Ian Paisley
:06:54. > :06:55.as First Minister. This most unlikely combination
:06:56. > :06:57.got done by the media His relationships
:06:58. > :07:04.with First Minister is Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster
:07:05. > :07:07.for a businesslike and Sinn Fein boycotted the Queen's
:07:08. > :07:12.first visit to the Republic but when she came to Belfast
:07:13. > :07:14.the following year Martin McGuinness was one of those who
:07:15. > :07:17.welcomed her to the city. It was an encounter that was to be
:07:18. > :07:19.repeated several times His view that these gestures
:07:20. > :07:32.were not sufficiently recognised or reciprocated by Unionists
:07:33. > :07:34.became a source of tension Martin McGuinness's departure
:07:35. > :07:39.is a pivotal moment in politics Until the day I retire
:07:40. > :07:44.from politics or die, is to build a better future
:07:45. > :07:47.for all of our people. It is a political project,
:07:48. > :07:53.not a military one. The DUP Advisor accused of exerting
:07:54. > :07:55.influence in the renewable heat Yesterday a senior civil servant
:07:56. > :08:00.said he understood the adviser, Dr Andrew Crawford, was the person
:08:01. > :08:02.who influenced the decision to keep Dr Crawford says he has
:08:03. > :08:07.acted with complete The DUP leader Arlene Foster
:08:08. > :08:14.announced his resignation. Andrew has felt that given
:08:15. > :08:21.what occurred yesterday and indeed today that he was becoming
:08:22. > :08:24.a distraction to the important work not only of his Minister but indeed
:08:25. > :08:28.he was becoming the story and anybody who knows
:08:29. > :08:30.Andrew Crawford knows that he is a very private person
:08:31. > :08:32.and he certainly didn't Also today, the finance minister,
:08:33. > :08:41.Mairtin O Muilleoir, announced that he's setting up
:08:42. > :08:43.a public inquiry into the renewable heat scheme,
:08:44. > :08:45.something which his party, There are shortcomings
:08:46. > :08:52.in the Enquiries Act, so for example I am making a pledge today
:08:53. > :08:59.I will not interfere in any way. It is also delivered
:09:00. > :09:04.to the minister, so I am making a pledge now that we would ensure
:09:05. > :09:07.that any report will go There'll be much more on the day's
:09:08. > :09:11.political developments in an extended edition of The View
:09:12. > :09:14.after this bulletin. The weather forecast
:09:15. > :09:26.now with Angie Philips. It looks as though a hue of us will
:09:27. > :09:30.hold a quite a bit of cloud through the night. Parts of the West could
:09:31. > :09:34.add some lingering clear spells. Temperatures dipping close to
:09:35. > :09:41.freezing giving frost and mist and fog patches. The cloud will move
:09:42. > :09:45.West for a time. In the afternoon, brighter skies come from the south
:09:46. > :09:50.with sunshine breaking through, cloudy towards the east with pockets
:09:51. > :09:53.of drizzle will stop the weekend, fairly chilly but mainly dry.
:09:54. > :09:56.Our next BBC Newsline is at 6.25 in the morning
:09:57. > :10:02.Parents are facing an explosion in the number of children saying
:10:03. > :10:10.It was like a battle, like in a war zone. She would literally scream.
:10:11. > :10:15.Although the stories that we tell are fictional, at their core