McGuinness ‘a leader in true sense of the word’ – Conway-Walsh

FINAL JOURNEY Mayo Senator, Rose Conway-Walsh, and Dessie Ellis, TD, carry Martin McGuinness’s coffin at his funeral in Derry last week.

Áine Ryan

FOR Sinn Féin Seanad leader, Senator Rose Conway-Walsh, the late Martin McGuinness, former Deputy-First Minister of Northern Ireland, was ‘a leader in the true sense of the word’.
“It is easy to lead in the good times but he led people on a path of peace based on mutual respect and true equality. In fact, he put his own life on the line when he reached out to those who opposed his own republican views,” Senator Conway-Walsh told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday).
“Personally, he was a great support to me for almost 20 years. He was easy and fun to be around, you could chat to him about anything; he had a great emotional and social intelligence and was completely at ease with himself. He stopped to see the beauty in people and places. I will miss him dearly but will be forever grateful that I had the honour of knowing him and of learning from him,” she continued.

Honoured
She told The Mayo News she was ‘honoured’ to have carried ‘his coffin three times along the route to his final resting place’ after his Requiem Mass in Derry, attended by some 25,000 people including many State and Church dignitaries.
Addressing the Seanad last week, Senator Conway-Walsh said: “Republicans across Ireland will mourn his passing.  Across Ireland and internationally, he is recognised as a statesman and peacemaker. Martin was a regular visitor to the west, and to Mayo in particular, both in a personal and political capacity. He joined me on many occasions on the election trail and had a genuine connection and affinity with all those we met. He came to Mayo during his presidential campaign in 2011 and was received with great warmness.
“He was also a regular visitor to the west in a personal capacity and believed strongly in the potential of region and the need for investment. He had a keen sense of the importance of rural Ireland to the republican project,” she observed. Poignantly, Chieftain flautist and Westport publican, Matt Molloy played at his graveside while there was a candlelit vigil held in Castlebar on the night of his death, March 21, where among the speakers were councillors Gerry Murray and Thérèse Ruane.