McGuinness – “Step Back and Bite the Bullet”

I hesitate before posting but I think it adds something:
McKittrick in the Independent (Yesterday I know…)….

Another IRA victim who has been impressed with Mr McGuinness is Mark Eakin, a Protestant whose eight- year-old sister was one of nine people killed in IRA car-bomb attacks near Londonderry in 1972. Mr Eakin has spoken several times with Mr McGuinness and said yesterday he thought the Sinn Fein leader would make a good head of state.
He added: “You have to look at the broader picture – is it a bad thing for him to be the Irish President? I don’t think so. He now wants to have a good Ireland. I think everybody has got to step back and bite the bullet.”

And the leading article: Another big step forward:

It is his new status that has emboldened Sinn Fein to put him forward in the south. The sight of him standing for President stirs painful emotions for many. Yet at a deeper level it is another positive step in republicanism’s long journey away from its violent history, away from the gun and into politics.

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