Northern Ireland

Family pays tender tribute to Martin McGuinness one year on

The coffin of Northern Ireland's former deputy first minister and ex-IRA commander Martin McGuinness is carried to his home in Derry by his wife Bernie McGuinness (front right) after he died aged 66. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday March 21, 2017
The coffin of Northern Ireland's former deputy first minister and ex-IRA commander Martin McGuinness is carried to his home in Derry by his wife Bernie McGuinness (front right) after he died aged 66. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday March 21 The coffin of Northern Ireland's former deputy first minister and ex-IRA commander Martin McGuinness is carried to his home in Derry by his wife Bernie McGuinness (front right) after he died aged 66. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Tuesday March 21, 2017

MARTIN McGuinness’s wife has paid a poignant tribute to him on the first anniversary of his death.

In a memoriam notice, Bernie McGuinness quoted from a poem before adding a personal message.

She said: “I love you Martin with my whole heart and soul. From your loving wife Bernie. All the souls pray for him.”

Mrs McGuinness chose the poem 'Today’s the Anniversary of the Day I Lost You' to commemorate her husband's death on March 21 last year.

It includes the lines: "One day we will meet again/ But only when the time is right/ When I step out of the darkness/ You will be standing in the light.”

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The couple's children, Gráinne, Fionnuala, Fiachra and Emmett, also chose the WB Yeats poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree to remember their father.

They added the personal message: “We love and miss you daddy, with our whole heart and souls.”

The former deputy first minister’s grandchildren and sons and daughters-in-law also remembered him with the poem A Life Well Lived is a Precious Gift in the 'In Memoriam' section of the Derry News newspaper.