Martin McGuinness

I'm with you Merlotgran and strangely for me Norman Tebbitt.

If only it could be perceived in such simplistic back and white terms. Have you no sense of Irish history?

I have a sense of Irish history. My parents were from Southern Ireland and I have learned/read a lot about it. I still have no time for terrorists.

Agree with you Merlotgran and KatyK no RIP from me either.

With you 100% Merlotgran hope he rots in Hell. My brother would still be alive if it wasn't for the likes of this excuse for a human being.

Cheered me up no end. I do hope he is doing some explaining.

How lucky that there were no innocent deaths on the other side.

I was sorry to learn of his death

R I P

Looking at comments on various websites and online media it seems that the majority of people who exptressed an opinion are delighted by his death.

A terrorist and the Commander of an organisation that caused my dh who was in the wrong place at the wrong time to be in hospital for many months and off work for a very long time.

I was waiting after work at a bus stop when the shop I was standing outside exploded and I was showered with glass and debris, later claimed by his organization. Miraculously I was physically only scratched. Although traumatised and probably because of shock, I didn't wait on the emergency services and walked (in shock) the 8 miles home on a dark winter night in the icy rain as all public transport was halted.

Yes, there was the Peace Process...... there was also what went before.

I feel ambiguous about Martin McGuinness's death, on one hand I agree with you Merlotgran. However, I always had sympathies with the injustices the Catholics in Northern Ireland suffered, having been brought up a Catholic and with one half Irish grandparent it was hard not to. However, random killings in the name of a cause can never be justified, never. I agree with KatyK "I have no time for terrorists" there has to be another way. Working in London through the '70s and '80s I can remember that ever present fear of where the next bomb might be and ultimately my sympathies are greater for all those who lost their lives at the hands of either side, rather than the Catholic cause. However, I'm not delighted by his death becuase ultimately he worked to bring about peace.

This is a difficult one for me. The troubles were appalling, and I hear all you say. When I think of Tim Parry and Jonathon Ball, Jean (surname I can't remember) Captain Niarak (spelling?) and countless others who were murdered in NI, my instincts are good riddance, BUT, he was instrumental in the peace process which would have faile(d without his rather strange rapport with Ian Paisley! So I think good overcame evil on all fronts, and I hope that he finds peace with God. (if he exists!!!)

Coolgran - what went before included centuries of appalling injustice and atrocities against Catholics. I'm sorry you had direct experience but there were many like you on both sides. Terri and niggly - very thoughtful and measured posts.
Mandela was called a terrorist by some Conservatives and yet where would SA be without him?

All Catholics did not support the IRA and their awful regime.NI wanted, and still wants to stay as part of the UK and not a united Ireland.
If the IRA had not existed and been murderously active, then there would have been no need for any defence force to act against them or indeed, a peace process.

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter

. If we are remembering the innocents who died st the hands of the IRA let us remember the innocents who died during the pots to famine at the hands of English landowners and the innocents gunned down on Bloody Sunday.

The man was a murderer so can't feel sad at hearing about his death. I wonder if he ever spared a thought for those he murdrered /had murdered?

I grew up in a family of Irish ancestry Catholics, and none of them had any time for the IRA and it's leaders.

Not sure there is much explaining to do in Hell Stansgran I think it's probably a place that anyone can get into no matter what.

My late Grandma was an Irish Catholic. Thrown out of the church for marrying the love of her life but welcomed back with open arms after my dear grandfathers death. Good of them eh?

Although we cannot forget old history, there was no famine or brutal landowners in the 1960's and 70's.
It was a political organisation, that wanted to acheive it's own ends.

like all wars and the "troubles" were war there were TWO sides who caused it,and then there was the UK government ...maybe without the soldiers and the tanks it would have been sorted much quicker ,government intervention certainly didn't appease people .My family were Irish and as Rigby46 says the treatment of catholics in the 6 counties was appalling.It was about civil rights for the catholic population and if they had had any support from the UK government way back in the beginning it wouldn't have escalated as it did.Look south of the Irish border where catholics and protestants have lived side by side since partition with no problems .Mr McGuinness may have done wron in his youth....as many on all sides did,but he worked hard to get peace and we should give him credit for that

In my opinion, He will go down in history as the man that he was. A murderer.

I just wrote a long vitriolic post - and then wiped it. We spent nearly three years in Northern Ireland from 1972, and lost friends and colleagues. McGuiness and his compatriots have more blood on their hands than they will want to admit to when they have to meet their maker, but no doubt God will forgive them. It's in his job description after all. I'm still struggling with whether I can.

I agree that innocents on both sides should be remembered. There were terrible atrocities on both sides over the years. I have visited a famine graveyeard in Ireland - a field of grass where the bodies were just thrown in. It was the saddest thing. However, I agree with Terribull there has to be another way. In the end talking won the day I suppose.