Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, elected Member of Parliament [the English legislature] from Mid-Ulster Martin McGuinness, was scheduled for several locations in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area on Thursday, March 18th, after his stint as the speaker at the Scranton Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner on St. Patrick's Day. McGuinness was to discuss the peace process in Ireland and the progress of the Good Friday Agreement.
McGuinness is a veteran of negotiations with the London government, having first been part of talks in 1972 when that government released him and Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, from internment without trial, to enter into negotiations with the then British direct ruler William Whitelaw. Martin had joined the civil-rights movement in Derry in 1968. In 1970, he had become a member of Sinn Fein and was elected to the party's National Executive.
He has played a major role in promoting and supporting the party's current strategy in the peace talks. As the chief negotiator, he has led the party's delegation since the IRA's unilateral cease-fire on August 31, 1994. First came talks with British minister Michael Anscram, and most recently with England's current direct ruler in the six counties, "Mo" Mowlam. Prior to that he led Sinn Fein in protracted "secret negotiations" with London from 1990 until 1993.
McGuinness, along with Adams, had private talks with President Clinton during his 1995 visit to Belfast, and he represented the party in high-level negotiations in Europe and at the Dublin Forum for Peace and Reconciliation.
Although he is an elected member of the London legislature from Mid-Ulster, McGuinness has refused to take his seat, in protest at British colonial rule in the North. He was elected Sinn Fein's chief negotiator in May 1996 following Forum elections in which the party increased its vote in Derry by 60%. Martin was also elected an Assembly member in the recent elections in Mid-Ulster.
He lives in Derry, where he was born in 1950, the second oldest of seven children to a close-knit Irish Republican family. He married his wife Bernie in 1974 and is the proud father of four children, two boys and two girls.
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