Former IRA boss to deliver Peace Lecture

FORMER IRA leader Martin McGuinness will deliver a special peace lecture in Warrington as part of the 20th anniversary commemorations of the terrorist bomb attack on the town which claimed the lives of two young boys and injured more than 50 shoppers.
Now Deputy First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the former Sinn Fein chief negotiator in the Good Friday agreement, has accepted an invitation from peace campaigner Colin Parry, to re-visit the Peace Centre on September 18, to deliver the annual peace lecture on behalf of the Foundation for Peace – the international charity co-founded by Colin and Wendy Parry following the bomb attack which claimed the lives of their 12-year-old son Tim Parry alongside three-year-old Johnathan Ball (pictured right).
The ticket only event will be hosted by Denis Murray, a former BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent and involve a Q&A’s session after the lecture.
The Foundation co-founders said:”This is an audacious occasion but one entirely befitting the principles of the Foundation. We work to prevent violence with those at risk from it, those affected by it, and those professionals who are tasked to deal with it. As an organisation, we are independent; we are not politically aligned; we are not faith based; we work with all parties and we do not pursue specific causes. Our founding principles are to talk and listen to anyone with a desire to advance peace building and reconciliation, which Martin McGuinness has since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
“Having dedicated our lives to peace building and reconciliation since the tragic loss of our son Tim, we have invited Mr McGuinness in the spirit of peace building and reconciliation, to address an invited audience.
Colin added: “Part of our ethos is that we talk to everyone. We don’t just talk to victims of terrorism we also talk to people who have been associated with terrorist acts, in simple terms; you make peace with your enemies, not with your friends. Mr. McGuinness’s past would have placed him beyond the pale for many people, but not for me and my Foundation.”
McGuinness has acknowledged that he was a former IRA member but says he left in 1974.
During a visit in 2001 he said he was sorry that Irish republicans were responsible for the boys’ deaths and that the Warrington bombing had been wrong.
Pictured top – Martin McGuinness pictured during his last visit to the Peace Centre with the late Wilf Ball (left) and Colin Parry (right).