"Over the coming period we are facing three crucial elections at Westminster, the Assembly and the Dail [the Irish Parliament]," McGuinness, who is also a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) commander, told delegates at an annual meeting of Sinn Fein republican party in Omagh on Saturday.
"These elections give us the opportunity to take more huge strides towards our ultimate goal, to put our struggle on to a new trajectory where the unity of our country and the establishment of the 1916 Republic becomes inevitable," the politician said.
In 1922, following a period of guerrilla conflict, British and Irish representatives agreed to establish the Irish Free State, later the Republic of Ireland. But the agreement led to the partitioning of the North East corner of Ireland, known as the six counties, that has remained under British rule.
Irish republicans in the IRA believed the partitioning of Ireland was a betrayal of the proclaimed 1916 Irish republic and fought a guerrilla conflict with British forces, at various intensities, to secure a united Ireland.
In 2005, the IRA finally announced an end to its armed conflict and committed its supporters to "democratic politics".
