FORMER US president Bill Clinton has made an impassioned plea for people to finish the peace building of Martin McGuinness.
Thousands of people thronged the streets of Londonderry’s Bogside as the veteran Sinn Fein figure’s funeral took place in St Columba’s Church.
Mr McGuinness died on Tuesday from a rare heart condition aged 66.
Mr Clinton and ex-Democratic Unionist Stormont first ministers Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster were among those attending yesterday’s requiem mass, as was former SNP leader Alex Salmond.
Looking down on a coffin draped in an Irish Tricolour, the former US president, who was central to the Good Friday Agreement negotiations, implored today’s leaders to pick up where Mr McGuinness left off.
Mr Clinton said: “He persevered and he prevailed. He risked the wrath of his comrades and the rejection of his adversaries. He made honourable compromises and was strong enough to keep them and came to be trusted because his word was good.
“And he never stopped being who he was. A good husband, a good father, a follower of the faith of his father and mother and a passionate believer in a free, secure, self-governing Ireland. The only thing that happened was that he shrank the definition of ‘us’ and expanded the definition of ‘them’.”
Mr Clinton added: “Our friend earned this vast crowd today. Even more, he earned the right to ask us to honour his legacy by our living. To finish the work that is there to be done.”
Mr Clinton spoke briefly with the McGuinness family after his passionate eulogy and touched the coffin as he walked by.
Mr McGuinness’s beloved Bogside neighbourhood came to a standstill as his coffin was walked to the church, led by a lone piper.
Irish President Michael D Higgins and his predecessor, Mary McAleese, also attended the funeral, as did Taoiseach Enda Kenny and former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
After the service, thousands followed the coffin of Mr McGuinness onward to the Republican plot of the city cemetery.
Elected members of Sinn Fein including Geery Adams and Stormont Sinn Fein Michelle O’Neill formed a guard of honour as he was carried on his final journey.
Irish President Michael D Higgins and his predecessor, Mary McAleese, attended the funeral, as did Taoiseach Enda Kenny and former Irish premiers Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen.
Bishop Donal McKeown, Bishop of Derry, opened requiem mass by welcoming dignitaries, public figures and politicians from Ireland, Britain and the US. He turned to the McGuinness family and said: “For you, this is not the funeral of a public figure. This is a funeral of a husband, father and a grandfather and our first thoughts are inevitably with you.”
He thanked those who had been involved in securing the Good Friday Agreement who travelled for the mass, including from within Northern Ireland and the Republic and Britain and the US.
He said: “It’s a tribute to those who didn’t just talk the talk but walked the walk of implementing the Good Friday Agreement that all three of those strands are so well represented here. Inside, chief celebrant Father Michael Canny said: “When you seek his monument, look around you. You, by your presence, are his monument.”
Mourners were told Mr McGuinness was the IRA commander who became a mainstay of the peace process.
Fr Canny revealed having many conversations with Mr McGuinness in which the Sinn Fein veteran said he knew only too well how many people struggled with his IRA past.
He said: “Republicans were not blameless, and many people right across the community find it difficult to forgive and impossible to forget. In conversation, he often repeated that there was no other way, we had to continually work for the building of peace and a better future for all.”
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