CAMPAIGN:MARTIN McGUINNESS returned to his roots yesterday evening to formally get his presidential campaign under way.
The Sinn Féin candidate, under election posters proclaiming “Martin McGuinness 1 – The People’s President – Uachtarán na nDaoine”, was given a rapturous send-off by hundreds of supporters in the Bogside area of Derry.
One of the speakers at Mr McGuinness’s send-off was Rev David Latimer.
The minister of the First Derry Presbyterian Church overlooking the Bogside, Rev Latimer has in recent years become a close personal friend of Mr McGuinness and he spoke in praise of the presidential candidate at the Sinn Féin ardfheis in Belfast earlier this month.
Just hours before Rev Latimer spoke at the rally, graffiti criticising him was daubed on a wall in the Loyalist Fountain Estate in Derry.
Workmen who arrived to remove the graffiti were warned not to touch it and they left the estate.
Others who attended yesterday evening’s Bogside rally included Waterside parish priest Fr Michael Canny, members of the Bloody Sunday families and the manager of Derry City Football Club, Stephen Kenny.
A promotional video for Mr McGuinness’s presidential campaign was broadcast on a big screen at Free Derry Corner with Riverdance-type background music.
Clips were shown of the Sinn Féin politician meeting national and international dignitaries and conducting media interviews.
In one clip, Mr McGuinness proclaimed that he believed politicians should aim high and not low.