Opinion : The longest road by Derry & Strabane Councillor Conor Heaney

But as with many things in the north of Ireland, linking Derry with Belfast and Dublin was anything but routine.

In fact, the refusal to build proper infrastructure in the north west - along of course with the university snub - became synonymous with the decades of discrimination towards Derry from the old unionist regime at Stormont.

That is why redressing these inequalities were, and remain, such burning priorities for Sinn Féin.

Martin McGuinness knew that if the new dispensation in the north was to mean anything, then we had to be able to demonstrate that things had changed. Derry could no longer be seen as the poor relation and it’s citizens as second class. Reversing the past neglect of our roads network was one small but very tangible way of doing so.

And so it was that in the aftermath of the 2017 elections, Martin informed me that he was appointing me to the Department of Infrastructure along with the new Sinn Féin Minister Chris Hazzard and a very clear instruction ‘to get the A5 and A6 built’.

On entering the Department Chris and I received our 'First Day Brief' and I immediately requested a meeting with senior officials to get an update on progress with both roads.

It was clear from the briefing that the plans for A6 were inadequate, the road was to be phased and only enough funding had been secured to take it as far as the Claudy junction. I advised Chris that as a Minister he would need to insist that the road went the whole way to Derry as it would be a ludicrous situation if the new A6 was a road between Belfast and Claudy.

And while both the A6 and A5 had already been identified as Executive Flagship projects, there was no clear way forward as to how this ambition would be turned into a reality.

Therefore, we set about ensuring that both roads were written firmly into the Programme for Government and, crucially, adequate funding allocated thought the Budget that was agreed the following month.

Thankfully, we are now finally able to reap the benefits of Martin Mc Guinness’ foresight with the opening of the A6 on Thursday past - a development that has been rightly hailed as transformative for the north west.

And I have absolutely no doubt that Sinn Féin will continue to prioritise the A5 because, not only will it transform a dangerous road and save lives, but it will also have huge economic benefits, create jobs and help connect the north west to the rest of the island.

It's been a long road to get to this point and we still have some way to travel.

However, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the A6 was a project that some said would never happen and others were determined to ensure they were right.

The leadership of people like Martin McGuinness proved them wrong and ensured it is now a reality.

It’s now up to this generation to ensure the other priorities for this city are delivered.

I have every confidence that will be the case.