Settling in, the Education Minister who left school at 15

WITH NO chauffeur-driven ministerial car and definitely no RUC bodyguard, Northern Ireland's new Minister for Education attempted to set a tone of informality for his first official duties yesterday.

Martin McGuinness, once one of the most senior IRA men, spent the day greeting his civil servants and key education figures at his department's headquarters in the staunchly Protestant town of Bangor, Co Down.

The sight of such a prominent republican figure taking his place in his at his seventh-floor desk, and leather armchair at his desk in the government building, attended by Nigel Hamilton, the department's permanent secretary, was bizarre indeed to those who have tracked the region's troubles.

For many rank and file Ulster residents it was too much; local BBC switchboards were swamped by angry callers seeking to air their grievances on whatever talk show or phone-in would have them.

But Mr McGuinness appeared to be ushering in a new era in a new style: out with the RUC bodyguards afforded to the office and in with Sinn Fein "security arrangements", said a party spokesman.

The new minister moved quickly to reassure Unionists concerned that he may adopt policies only for Catholic children. He said: "This is about children, not about Unionism, nationalism, loyalism, republicanism. It's about children - our greatest resource, how we must nurture them, how we care for them, how we protect them, and primarily how we educate them."

Now 50, Mr McGuinness left school at 15 and worked as an apprentice butcher. He joined the IRA as conflict exploded on the streets of Northern Ireland in the mid-1960s but later played a crucial part in the peace negotiations led by former US senator George Mitchel.