COLIN Parry – father of 12-year-old Tim Parry, who died in the IRA bombing of Warrington 24 years ago – does not forgive former Northern Ireland deputy first minister Martin McGuiness who died in the early hours of this morning.
Speaking to the BBC shortly after news of the former IRA chief’s death broke, Mr Parry said: “Forgiveness never comes into it.
“I don’t forgive Martin. I don’t forgive the IRA – nor does my wife, nor do my children.
“But setting aside forgiveness the simple fact is I found Martin McGuinness an easy and pleasant man to talk to – a man who I believe was sincere in his desire for peace and maintaining the peace process at all costs.
“I think he deserves great credit for his most recent life rather than his earlier life.
“I don’t think anything in his most recent life can atone – that said he was still a brave man who put himself in some risk in some elements of his own community in Northern Ireland.”
Mr McGuiness died within hours of the special commemoration of the 24th anniversary of the Bridge Street bombings of 1993, attended by Mr Parry and his wife, Wendy.
Twenty years after the bombing, Mr Parry invited the Sein Fein leader to the Peace Centre in Warrington to deliver a lecture.
At the time, he said: “It is because Martin McGuinness has embraced mainstream, constitutional politics in order to pursue his goal of a united Ireland, that I invited him to deliver the lecture.
“I am fully aware of his past life as an active member and leader of the IRA, but he has, since the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Peace Agreement, fully committed himself to peaceful and constitutional methods of building the Northern Ireland peace process.”
He said such activities were consistent with the founding principles of the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace.
It is understood Mr McGuinness died of a heart condition, aged 66.
Pictured: Colin Parry and Martin McGuinness at Warrington’s Peace Centre in 2013
