‘Our Martin: Irish Republican Martin McGuinness’ to be launched in Derry

Strikingly, author Jim McVeigh described his new book ‘Our Martin: Irish Republican Martin McGuinness’ as “a bit of a love story”.

Speaking to Derry Now ahead of its Derry launch in the Guildhall at 7.00pm on Wednesday (July 23), Mr McVeigh said he had been asked to write the book by former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams.

“At that time, obviously, I didn’t know a lot about Martin’s personal life, about his family life and one of the things about the book is it is a bit of a love story too,” he said.

“But, as I spoke to Bernie [Martin’s wife] and just gathered the information about their life together, I discovered they were a really strong couple, in love from their teenage years right to the very end when Martin passed and that was a surprise,” he added, “because I’m not from Derry and I didn’t know Bernie or the family very well.

“‘Our Martin: Irish Republican Martin McGuinness’ is a mixture of political history in relation to the conflict but it is also an intimate look at Martin’s life, his personal life, his family life and it is a love story.

“No matter where Martin was in the country or what he was doing, he tried to get home if it was physically possible.

“ It didn’t matter if he had to drive from one end of the country to the other to be home at 4 o’clock in the morning. He wanted to be there with his family, for his kids getting up out of bed.

“When I spoke to Bernie, we agreed there had been a lot written about Martin but very little had looked at the real Martin - Martin the man, the father, the husband, comrade, friend.

“I wanted to write a book which looked at the type of man he was and his family life, as well as the politics, the history, the conflict,” explained Jim McVeigh, “I felt it was a book that hadn’t been written yet.”

Lifelong Republican Jim McVeigh, who hails from the Clonard area of Belfast, has previously written books on Tom Williams - the last IRA Volunteer to be executed (September 2 1942) - and Joe McKelvey an IRA Volunteer who was executed in 1922, along with several other Republicans. 

Martin and Bernie McGuinness meeting South African President Nelson Mandela during the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Dublin in June 2003.

“I actually wrote Tom Williams book when I was in prison,” said Jim McVeigh, “He came from the same part of Belast as myself. I have also had a novel ‘Stolen Faith’ published by O’Brien Press. It is a historical thriller set in the Mother and Baby Homes.”

A former Sinn Féin councillor on Belfast City Council and a trade union activist, Mr McVeigh said the material for ‘Our Martin: Irish Republican Martin McGuinness’ was a “mix of historical research and interviews”. 

“So, as well as reading all the available material, I interviewed, in the first instance, Martin’s family, friends and comrades. I also spent a lot of time talking to Bernie and talking to Martin’s two sons and two daughters, his close friends and close comrades in various parts of the country, over the two years it took to complete the book,” he said.

Asked if anything he found while researching the book surprised him, Jim McVeigh said there was “quite a bit”.

“I was in Prison for 16 years during the conflict and when you are in prison you read a lot and you study. I did an Open University in prison and my Master’s at Queen’s and would have considered myself well read but even as a Republican, I had never heard of Derry’s Springtown Camp before this,” he said.

“I knew the history of Derry, the discrimination, gerrymandering that occurred there but I’d never heard of the Springtown Camp! When I saw the images of families living in Nissan Huts, it brought it all home to me just how bad conditions were for the Catholic, Nationalist population, not just in Derry but across the State. It was pretty shocking,” he added.

Jim McVeigh, Author of 'Our Martin: Irish Republican Martin McGuinness.

“I was reading a lot about that period in particular, the late 1960s - 1969, the early Civil Rights Movement - and just the brutality of the old Unionist regime. 

“Many Unionists are still trying to deny or minimise just how bad the State was. Then you read about the brutality of the B Specials and the cover ups, the fact that in those early years the aggressors were entirely the B Specials, the RUC, and the British Army, you are quickly reminded just how bad things were and who really fired the first shots.”

Jim McVeigh recalled how he had first met Martin McGuinness when he was in the H Blocks. 

“I was in the H Blocks during the Peace Process and in its early stages, in 1997 or 1998, Martin and a Sinn Féin delegation visited the prison. About 50 of us were brought to the prison gymnasium in the middle of the H Blocks and we met Martin and were briefed on the Peace Process.”

Later released from prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, Jim McVeigh remembered Martin McGuinness as a “genuine, warm, sincere person”.

“He was the type of person who really listened to you. He always had time for you,” said Mr McVeigh.

Why this book and why now? Jim McVeigh’s response is unequivocal.

“I think Republicans are sometimes accused of trying to re-write history and I think that couldn’t be further from the truth. When I look at the amount of books that have been written by Republicans in the past quarter of a century, you could count them on two hands. There haven’t been that many Republican accounts of our history and I think there is a real appetite out there, especially among young Nationalists, to understand what happened, why it happened, why the conflict lasted so long, how did it end, how did the Peace Process begin, and why did it endure?” he said. 

“There is a whole generation that needs to know about the Northern State, the Orange State, how bad things - our Republican perspective on the history of the conflict,” he added.

“In addition, a lot of nonsense has been written about Martin, most of it salacious gossip and speculation based on anonymous sources within the so called British ‘security services’ and former Republicans.

“But, I think whether you are a Nationalist, a Republican, or indeed a Unionist or neither, there is a side to Martin that might be pleasantly surprise you in terms of his character and personality.

“Martin once famously made one statement about the ‘cutting edge of the IRA’. He was portrayed as a hard man but Martin was critical to the development of the Peace Process.

“However, when you read the rest of that interview, he went on to say, if someone could show him there was an alternative to armed struggle, he would gladly take it. 

“In hindsight he was a man true to his word.

“Whenever he became convinced there was a political alternative to the armed struggle, and all that that entailed and the impact that had, he  became a passionate advocate of the Peace Process and there wouldn’t have been one without him,” asserted Jim McVeigh, who added, “The Peace Process was built by a lot of people not least John Hume and Gerry Adams, but it certainly would not have been possible without Martin.”

‘Our Martin: Irish Republican Martin McGuinness’ also contains more than 100 photographs, many of which will never have been seen before.

They have been provided by Martin’s family, friends, comrades.  

Republican Information Centre: From left: Mitchel McLaughlin, Gerry O'Doherty, Liam McCartney, Barney McFadden, Martin, Sean Keenan Sr, John Carlin, Tommy Toner, Agnes McNaught, Ricky Halpenny, and Mary Nelis, Derry 1982.

Jim McVeigh revealed while writing the book, he was struck by the fact, over the decades of the conflict, it was actually Republicans who were open to dialogue and compromise.

“I don’t just mean in the 1990s during the Peace Process,” he said, “but before that.

“And the real problem was in the 1970s and the 1980s,  the strategy of the British Government and the British crown forces was to defeat Republicans, not to engage in dialogue with Republicans, not to take a political compromise to the conflict,” he added.

“But when I look at the history, it was Republicans who were willing to talk. It was Republicans who engaged in a peace process and it only happened in the 1990s because the British by that time had been forced to conclude they could not defeat the IRA and they would have to talk.

“Up until that they thought they could simply defeat the IRA through counter insurgency strategies and shoot-to-kill.

“I hope young Republicans and Nationalists and others will be learn something from the histories of those decades contained in the book.”

‘Our Martin: Irish Republican Martin McGuinness’ by Jim McVeigh is published by Beyond the Pale Books and costs £24.99.