Former IRA chief of staff and Sinn Féin presidential candidate says he would meet all heads of state without exception
Former IRA chief of staff Martin McGuinness has said would be willing to meet the Queen if he was elected Irish president.
In his first comments after being announced as Sinn Féin's surprise candidate for the presidency, McGuinness, who is deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, said he would meet all international heads of state without exception.
When asked about the possibility of hosting British royalty, he said: "If the people of Ireland decided that I should be their president, my responsibilities and duties would be to meet heads of state from all over the world and to do that without exception, and that would be my position."
The Sinn Féin MP who admitted he was the Provisional IRA's second-in-command in Derry during Bloody Sunday also said he was also ready to tackle questions about the IRA during the presidential campaign.
Opponents have already said his former IRA role could destabilise the power-sharing executive back at Stormont.
But McGuinness said he believed he had played a key role in ending the decades of violence and wanted to look to a new future.
"The past is a terrible place but I think I am seen very much as a part of the future.
"This is about new beginnings and I have been at the heart of new beginnings."
He added that the Irish people had "more sense" than to be swayed by hostile media.
"The people of Ireland have watched the political progress that Gerry Adams and I have been at the heart of for many years.
"I think I would prefer their judgment than the judgment of media who are looking for spectacular headlines."
Speaking at Belfast's international airport on his return from a US trip, McGuinness said his candidacy was only finalised in the last week.
The decision has already been described as the republican movement's most audacious political move since IRA prisoner Bobby Sands was elected an MP while on prison hunger strike in 1981.
McGuinness has built up a close personal relationship with Peter Robinson, the Democratic Unionist first minister in the five-party coalition in Northern Ireland.
Although McGuinness will have to step down temporarily from the post as deputy first minister during the three-week long presidential campaign, sources said that would be a "mess but not a crisis" for the power-sharing government in Belfast.
While he is likely to increase Sinn Féin's national share of the vote in the Republic above the 9% it gained in this year's general election, McGuinness is not expected to win the presidential contest.
Asked if he could win, McGuinness said: "That remains to be seen. I will leave that to the people of Ireland."
His candidacy will be formally endorsed by his party on Sunday at a meeting in Dublin.
McGuinness added: "I intend to build on the progress that has been made within the peace process.
"And most importantly of all, I hope that this gives an opportunity to Irish citizens to make a stand for a new beginning, for a new Ireland.
"I have been at the heart of many new beginnings in the North over the course of recent years."
If McGuinness were to be elected as head of state it would mark a career during which he had been chief of staff of an organisation outlawed in both Northern Ireland and the Republic and ends up being chief of staff of the officially recognised Irish defence forces.
Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell, Special Olympics boss Mary Davis, businessman Sean Gallagher and Labour's Michael D Higgins of Labour, have already put their names forward for the October election.
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