Dissident republicans threatening to kill Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will not deter him from building the peace process, he said today.
The leading Sinn Féin representative revealed police warned him that dissidents, who last month killed two soldiers and a policeman, were plotting to kill Mr McGuinness.
The Mid Ulster MP also said his wife and children had been verbally abused in the street by dissident supporters, but he said he would not be intimidated.
"We are dealing with a set of imposters here, with people who are trying to hijack the republican cause for their own purposes. Well, they're not going to succeed," he told reporters at Free Derry Corner in his native city.
"We have a job to do.
"Yes, it is a difficult job, and yes, it may be a dangerous job, and yes, some of us may lose our lives in the future.
"But I am not going to be threatened. I am not going to be intimidated and I am certainly not going to live my life in fear.
"I have a job to do. And I intend to do that job."
Sappers Patrick Azimkar (21) from London, and Mark Quinsey (23) from Birmingham, were shot dead by the Real IRA outside the Massereene Army base in Antrim, on March 7th.
Two days later the Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for the murder of Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer Stephen Carroll in Craigavon, Co Armagh.
One man has been charged over the soldiers' murders and three have been charged in connection with Pc Carroll's murder.
In the wake of the killings the main political parties in Northern Ireland united in opposition to the violence and Mr McGuinness said the killers were traitors to Ireland who had defied the wishes of the people.
Today he repeated that his political efforts to boost the peace process were supported by the vast majority of people across Ireland and he would not be deterred by the latest death threats.
"Over the past 24 hours I have been contacted by the PSNI and told of the existence of a threat to my life. It is believed this threat comes from a so-called dissident grouping," Mr McGuinness said.
"I have spent my entire adult life engaged in the republican struggle to bring about Irish unity and independence.
"Throughout that time there have been numerous attempts made to silence me and stop me going about my republican work.
"These have come from a variety of British state agencies and their surrogates in the loyalist gangs.
"It now seems that some of these small groups have now taken their place in that company."
He added: "One thing is for certain: neither I nor Sinn Fein has allowed these sorts of threats to stop us representing our community and driving forward the republican agenda in the past and we will not allow it to deflect us from our work in the future.
"The task of building the peace process and advancing republican and democratic goals is far too important for us to let that happen."
Leader of the nationalist SDLP Mark Durkan condemned the threat.
He added: "These threats are as wrong now as they have been over the past 40 years.
"All the parties showed strong unity in response to the murders in Antrim and Craigavon, and the wider threat that so-called dissident groups were posing.
"That same unity of resolve is needed in the face of any threat to any political leader by any group.
"Such a threat must be repudiated, not just because it is against a politician of any given party, but because it is against a representative of the democratic institutions which all the people of Ireland mandated under the Good Friday Agreement."
Mr McGuinness said the dissidents had no strategy to deliver a united Ireland and said Sinn Fein was continuing to pursue the goal of Irish reunification.