Former IRA commander and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, changed the state much more than the state changed him.

Opinions of McGuinness, in the wake of his death after a short illness, have been offered from a wide spectrum within society. The views and perspectives of the man are as far-ranging as the views and perspectives of the Northern Irish troubles are in general.

Those political figures paying tribute, such as former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and former US President, Bill Clinton, tend to justify the tribute by focusing attention on how much he has either “changed” or “transitioned”.

The Presbyterian minister, Reverend David Latimer, who became good friends with McGuinness through their work together in Derry, described Martin’s transition in religious terms by stating that, “It was as if one day St. Paul tapped him on the shoulder.”

Even veteran journalist, Peter Taylor, whose knowledge of Northern Ireland is rarely doubted and whose film, “Who Won The War?” is one of the finest documentaries about the troubles, refers to McGuinness undergoing a “conversion”.

However, this narrative is wrong.

Politicians and the media make one important omission and that is that the Northern Irish state changed, and needed to change, much more than McGuinness did.

He never denounced what he did in his past or apologised for it. He did everything in his power to achieve a sustainable peace without letting the British state that murdered and maimed the people of his city and his nation off the hook by doing so.

This is not to say that McGuinness didn’t change at all, everyone changes throughout their lives, and of course he became much more compromising as he got older, being influenced no doubt by Ian Paisley in this regard. Also, this is not to say that he didn’t learn from his mistakes, as we all do.

However, we are in danger of forgetting that the state changed significantly over the course of his lifetime. Life got consistently better for the nationalist community and barriers to equality with their unionist neighbours continually got knocked down. This allowed for many of the events and gestures to happen which politicians and the media attribute to McGuinness’ “transition”.

With the recent collapse of Stormont’s power-sharing government and the dangers Brexit brings with it for Northern Ireland, it is particularly important not to forget what life was like before the Good Friday Agreement. It could already be said that recent politics has trivialised the importance of power-sharing and the 1998 agreement.

This is a fact not lost on former US Senator George Mitchell, the special envoy who played a pivotal role in peace negotiations, when paying tribute to McGuinness. He stated, “When the peace agreement was announced in 1998, it was the first instalment, not the final issue and it has to be continued, and it is up to the current leaders to carry that mantle forward. I think that’s the message of Martin McGuinness’ life and passing.”

In McGuinness’ last public appearance, speaking to a group of people who had congregated outside his home in the Bogside in Derry after he resigned from the office of Deputy First Minister, he declared, “Bogside republicans never retire.” In this message, I understood that if conditions where the same today as they had have been in his youth, we would find that McGuinness hadn’t changed anywhere near as much as is perceived.