The then Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness meeting the Queen at Hillsborough Castle
BRITAIN’S Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is to write to the wife of Martin McGuinness toexpress her condolences after he died this morning in Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital after a short illness.
Mr McGuinness met and shook hands with the Queen during a charity event in Belfast in June 2012.
The day after, Mr McGuinness spoke about its “momentous and historical” significance.
He said that the meeting had the potential to define “a new relationship between Britain and Ireland and between the Irish people themselves”.
A few years later Mr McGuinness paid tribute to the Queen for meeting him.
“I liked her courage in agreeing to meet with me, I liked the engagements that I’ve had with her. There’s nothing I have seen in my engagements with her that this is someone I should dislike – I like her,” he told a BBC documentary.
Buckingham Palace today indicated that the Queen would be contacting his wife Bernie, without giving further details.
However, it is expected she will send a personal letter to Mrs McGuinness on losing her husband.
Tags: