SINN Fein's Martin McGuinness has died, aged 66.

The deputy first minister of Northern Ireland had a rare heart condition.

He visited Warrington in 2013, 20 years after the IRA bomb that killed Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball, to deliver a peace lecture at the Peace Centre.

Speaking to the BBC shortly after the news broke, Tim's dad Colin Parry said: "Forgiveness never comes into it.

"I don't forgive Martin. I don't forgive the IRA - nor does my wife, nor do my children.

"But setting aside forgiveness the simple fact is I found Martin McGuinness [to be] an easy and pleasant man to talk to - a man who I believe was sincere in his desire for peace and maintaining the peace process at all costs.

"I think he deserves great credit for his most recent life rather than his earlier life.

"I don't think anything in his most recent life can atone - that said he was still a brave man who put himself in some risk in some elements of his own community in Northern Ireland."

After meeting Mr McGuinness, Mr Parry spoke about the pursuit of peace.

He said:  “It is because Martin McGuinness has embraced mainstream, constitutional politics in order to pursue his goal of a united Ireland, that I invited him to deliver the lecture.

“I am fully aware of his past life as an active member and leader of the IRA, but he has, since the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Peace Agreement, fully committed himself to peaceful and constitutional methods of building the Northern Ireland peace process.

“Such activities are entirely consistent with the founding principles of the Foundation and with the ethos at the heart of the work we do in memory of my son and Johnathan Ball, because by doing so, we are doing something positive in their names in order to address the personal and community impact of extremism and terrorism.”