SINN FÉIN’S Martin McGuinness confirmed yesterday that he had received a threat against his life from a dissident republican group. The threat was passed on to Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister by PSNI officers.
Yesterday, Mr McGuinness, once a senior figure in the Provisional IRA, chose the symbolic location of Free Derry Wall in the Bogside to accuse those behind the threat of trying to turn the area into a ghetto and a slum.
Mr McGuinness, who earlier this month described dissident republicans as traitors, was accompanied by about 50 supporters during his Bogside press conference. It is understood the threat against him is linked to an incident in the Bogside earlier this week when a member of a dissident group was disarmed by associates after he had been heard making threats against Mr McGuinness.
“During my life I have been under threat from groups such as the British state agencies and loyalist murder gangs. It seems now this small unsupported group has joined those groups.
“Their threats will not deter me from doing my work as Deputy First Minister and as an MP. I have a job to do in terms of building the peace process and achieving the ultimate political objective of reunification. Their threats and activities will not succeed.”
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams also strongly criticised dissidents this week, saying: “Militarism, elitism or adventurism is no substitute to strategy, for tactics, for common sense.” He said Sinn Féin had no intention of surrendering to “any of these elements”.
There have been attacks on Sinn Féin homes and property in Derry since Easter.