19/01/2017 BBC Newsline

Hello and welcome to BBC Newsline. Washington.

A former Provisional IRA commander who ended up shaking

hands with the Queen, Martin McGuinness today said

he will not be standing again for election.

He's been one of the dominant figures of the last five decades.

In recent weeks, despite a serious health condition, the 65-year-old

is said to have had a key role in Sinn Fein's decision

to prompt a snap election, triggered by his resignation.

Tonight, friends and neighbours of Martin McGuinness threw

a surprise reception for him at his home in the Bogside.

Hundreds of people gathered outside his house where an emotional

Mr McGuinness and his wife were surrounded by family.

The only fair thing to do, which I have done today, was to make it

clear that I will not unfortunately, even though it breaks my heart, my

heart lies in the Bogside. Our political editor

Mark Devenport has been speaking to Martin McGuinness and he first

asked him why he'd decided not In the aftermath of the Assembly

elections last year I was honoured to be asked to stay

on as Deputy First Minister. I said I would do it

for a further year, bringing me to the 8th of May this year,

which would've been the tenth anniversary of going

into government with Ian Paisley, I thought I was an appropriate time

for me to stand aside as Deputy First Minister and make

way for the new Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister, but, of course,

the best laid plans of mice and men We have had two situations to deal

with, I have had two One is the crisis at Stormont,

and my own health problems, Really, I have been dealing

with this health situation But I am very determined

to overcome it. The question I ask myself is,

are you capable, physically capable -- of fighting this election

with the intensity that The honest answer is I am not

physically capable or able to fight this election,

so I will not be a candidate Aren't you disappointed

that your decision to retire from politics has come at the time

when the Stormont institutions have effectively collapsed and how hard

do you think it will be If there is a will to face up to not

go back to the status quo. I think that poses particular

challenges to everybody, but more so to the DUP in terms

of recognising that serious questions have been asked

about the handling of different situations in the course

of recent times, so I think I don't actually remember the last

time I heard a member of the DUP use A particular disappointment to me

in this, a small point in relation to the big acts of reconciliation

I have been involved in, prior to the European Championships,

the soccer championships in France this year, we suggested to the DUP

that Arlene and I should travel to France and go together

to a Northern Ireland game, I wasn't asking her to go

to 1916 commemoration, It was an opportunity

to reach out and Arlene went to the Northern Ireland match

and I went to both. Your journey has been

remarkable from the early days when you are open about your role

within the IRA, to the later days when you have been

seen as a peacemaker. Looking back on that,

do you regret anything about your endorsement of the use

of violence to further your errands? --

of violence to further your aims? People need to look

at the circumstances in the city It was a city where people

were being murdered at the RUC, murdered wholesale as they were

on Bloody Sunday, by The Parachute Regiment,

and the fact that many young people like myself, supported by many

thousands of people in the city, not saying there was a majority,

decided to fight back. Mervyn Jess looks back

on a life that went He started out as an IRA leader

from the Bogside in Derry and became the Deputy First Minister

of the power-sharing It was in the early 1970s that

Martin McGuinness first came As the officer commanding the Derry

part of the IRA operation, can't you say if the bombing

is likely to stop the near future We will always take

into consideration the feelings Raised in the Bogside in the early

1950s as one of a large Catholic nationalist family,

his father, William, was a foundry worker

and his mother Peggy a housewife As conflict grew in the city,

young Martin McGuinness join the IRA He was part of an Irish delegation

involved with secret talks Reports that I am chief of staff

in the IRA are untrue The bombings and killings continued

and by the early 1980s Martin McGuinness was standing

for election in Jim prior's assembly, but did not

renounce the IRA campaign. At the end of the day it will be

the cutting edge of IRA As part of the Sinn Fein peace

strategy had been involved in protracted and secret talks

with the British government. In January 2007, Sinn Fein

through its support behind the new Police Service

of Northern Ireland, paving the way for its appointment

as Deputy First Minister, along with Ian Paisley

as First Minister. This most unlikely combination

got done by the media His relationships

with First Minister is Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster

for a businesslike and Sinn Fein boycotted the Queen's

first visit to the Republic but when she came to Belfast

the following year Martin McGuinness was one of those who

welcomed her to the city. It was an encounter that was to be

repeated several times His view that these gestures

were not sufficiently recognised or reciprocated by Unionists

became a source of tension Martin McGuinness's departure

is a pivotal moment in politics Until the day I retire

from politics or die, is to build a better future

for all of our people. It is a political project,

not a military one. The DUP Advisor accused of exerting

influence in the renewable heat Yesterday a senior civil servant

said he understood the adviser, Dr Andrew Crawford, was the person

who influenced the decision to keep Dr Crawford says he has

acted with complete The DUP leader Arlene Foster

announced his resignation. Andrew has felt that given

what occurred yesterday and indeed today that he was becoming

a distraction to the important work not only of his Minister but indeed

he was becoming the story and anybody who knows

Andrew Crawford knows that he is a very private person

and he certainly didn't Also today, the finance minister,

Mairtin O Muilleoir, announced that he's setting up

a public inquiry into the renewable heat scheme,

something which his party, There are shortcomings

in the Enquiries Act, so for example I am making a pledge today

I will not interfere in any way. It is also delivered

to the minister, so I am making a pledge now that we would ensure

that any report will go There'll be much more on the day's

political developments in an extended edition of The View

after this bulletin. The weather forecast

now with Angie Philips. It looks as though a hue of us will

hold a quite a bit of cloud through the night. Parts of the West could

add some lingering clear spells. Temperatures dipping close to

freezing giving frost and mist and fog patches. The cloud will move

West for a time. In the afternoon, brighter skies come from the south

with sunshine breaking through, cloudy towards the east with pockets

of drizzle will stop the weekend, fairly chilly but mainly dry.

Our next BBC Newsline is at 6.25 in the morning

Parents are facing an explosion in the number of children saying

It was like a battle, like in a war zone. She would literally scream.

Although the stories that we tell are fictional, at their core