McGuinness and the Queen

Provo Sinn Fein/IRA leader Martin McGuinness says it would be a 'huge ask' for him to meet the Queen. It was a very big ask for the people of Northern Ireland to have him as Minister of Education and now Deputy First Minister despite his murderous past. Yet are we somehow supposed to thank him for his great 'courage' in meeting the Head of the country where he is a DFM in one of the devolved regions?