The controversial life of the late Martin McGuinness could stand as an emblem of the extraordinary changes in the recent history of the island of Ireland. The path the politician from Derry took, from giving a funeral oration in praise of a republican who had once shot at Arlene Foster’s father, who was a Royal Ulster Constabulary reservist, to sharing power with the DUP leader in the Stormont parliament, is now described in photographs and words in a book by the Observer and Guardian’s long-time Irish affairs correspondent Henry McDonald.

“In this case, for once the cliche term of ‘a journey’ really is apposite, because McGuinness travelled such a long way,” McDonald said this weekend. “To go from IRA commander to deputy first minister, well, you cannot get a clearer message across about how things have altered than that. The book really shows the passage of time. It starts with the black and white grainy shots and goes through to the colour of the contemporary world and to shots of McGuinness with kids while he served as education minister.”

The death of McGuinness in March at the age of 66 was viewed as the sad close of a career spent fighting for the freedom of the Catholic and nationalist communities by some, and yet welcomed by others as the end of a former terrorist who had orchestrated widescale violence.

“In the end we can say McGuinness did not achieve his war aims. He ended up running an institution he had set out to destroy,” said McDonald. “But when it comes to where we are now, after 33 years reporting this scene, I can say that if McGuinness had lived, the chance of a deal with the DUP would have been much better. The leadership found him easier to deal with. He would, I think, had he not died early, have established that they needed to have a common front. His diplomatic abilities would have helped.”

McDonald said his book, Martin McGuinness: A Life Remembered, has already upset those who hoped for a hagiography of their hero, and annoyed others in the dissident republican community who feel McGuinness sold out.

“And, of course, people in the Unionist community think he deserves nothing at all. There are a lot of people who loathed him for understandable reasons.”