Former paramilitary who helped broker peace in Northern Ireland has quit politics

Martin McGuinness, the politician who forced a snap election for the devolved Northern Ireland parliament, announced Thursday he has quit politics.

The 66-years-old one time leader in the Irish Republican Army (IRA) said ill-health has forced him to retire.

McGuinness will be remembered in history as the man who switched from being a paramilitary commander, fighting the British occupation of Northern Ireland, to a peacemaker and deputy leader in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

He resigned as deputy leader at Stormont, knowing it would bring down the devolved assembly, forcing an all out election. A fall-out with leader Arlene Foster forced his decision to stand down earlier this month.

Under the share-power agreement in Northern Ireland, the pro-republican Sinn Fein politician's resignation mean that the leader of the assembly, Arlene Foster of the pro-unionist Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) would also lose her job.

With the final meeting of the devolved government in a week's time, the future of the assembly will now depend on the outcome of elections for the 108-seats at Stormont on March 2.

James Brokenshire, Britain's secretary of state for Northern Ireland, announced on Monday that he was calling an election because of the fall-out between Sinn Fein and the DUP. Endit