The ‘Great Hall’ at Stormont was resplendent with the symbolism of Ireland’s long struggle for Irish independence at the unveiling last week of the portrait of Martin McGuinness.
The ‘Planter and the Gael’, to borrow the phrase from a speech made several years ago by the former first minister, Peter Robinson, turned out to pay their respects at the special event which coincided, almost to the day, with Martin’s passing a year ago.
The ‘Planter and the Gael’ mingled tentatively – the tension a reminder of the recently failed negotiations to restore the north’s institutions.
The former first ministers, Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster, and other senior members of the DUP – all of whom would have had first-hand experience of working with Martin as deputy first minister over ten years, turned out as did Mike Nesbitt, the former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Senior figures from the Protestant churches, John Dunlop and Harold Good, who were invaluable in making peace possible attended as did members of the Catholic clergy.
While we waited for Martin’s portrait to be unveiled I noticed the faces of the portraits of Ian Paisley and Seamus Mallon looking down on the gathering. A few feet below them stood the metallic statue of Lord Craigavon – the north’s first unionist prime minster.
The portraits of Mallon and Paisley were a reminder of the new era of politics that echoed around the assembly since the Good Friday Agreement, whose twentieth anniversary is soon, and which reconfigured the north’s politics into an all-Ireland setting.
Craigavon’s statue, a reminder of a time when Stormont housed and served only the interests of unionists and was a ‘cold house for Catholics’, to borrow a phrase from another unionist leader and former first minister, David Trimble.
The DUP’s high-profile presence was significant and thoughtful of the special occasion, given the difficulties that have arisen between Sinn Féin and the DUP over the last few years.
Thoughtful and considerate too was the speech by the assembly’s Speaker, Robin Newton, also a senior DUP figure.
He thanked Martin’s family for attending the event “so close to Martin’s first anniversary’. He was fulsome in his praise of Martin’s leadership qualities. He said he had “the quality to bridge the difference, to rise above old enmities”. It was he said, “questionable” the assembly would have been created without him.
He said Martin’s portrait was the first of a member of Sinn Féin to hang in the building and that it was “entirely fitting” it should.
Uniting ‘Planter and Gael’ inside and outside institutions which Martin “gave so much of his life, his time, his energy to” was a prominent theme of the speech by Michelle O'Neill.
It caught the essence of the man she described as a “people’s first politician” dedicated to transforming people’s lives, drawing on integrity, generosity and “choosing hope over fear”.
But it was a day, not just for words to capture Martin McGuinness’s remarkable qualities. It was also a day for the artist and brush-strokes to do so as well.
And Tony Bell, the Belfast based artist, did precisely that.
His painting of Martin is incredible; the likeness striking as if it was a photograph.
He was keen to present Martin as he saw him over the years as a peacemaker, a statesman and as a family man.
Presenting Martin’s hands was every bit as important as his face because it allowed the artist to display Martin’s wedding ring, “The symbol of his bond with his beloved wife and family who stood with him in good times and bad – always”.
Standing in the Great Hall a few feet away from Peter Robinson, Arlene Foster and Gerry Adams I reflected on Martin’s funeral and the thousands of people who attended it.
Amidst the deep sadness and grief, it was a moment of great potential for change when to paraphrase Michelle O'Neill’s speech last week, we could have ‘turned a corner and entered a new era’.
Despite the strenuous efforts made to restore the institutions it was a missed opportunity.
I got a similar feeling in the ‘Great Hall’ last week.
In life Martin McGuinness united people and in death he did so as well.
It is time for the ‘Planter and Gael’ to irrevocably turn the corner.
