Ian Richard Kyle Paisley

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Ian Paisley may also refer to Ian Paisley, Jr.

The Right Honourable The Reverend Dr  Ian Paisley  MP MLA
2nd First Minister of Northern Ireland
In office 8 May 2007 – 5 June 2008
Deputy	Martin McGuinness
Preceded by	David Trimble
Succeeded by	Peter Robinson
Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party
In office 30 September 1971 – 31 May 2008
Succeeded by	Peter Robinson
Member of Parliament for North Antrim
Incumbent
Assumed office  18 June 1970
Preceded by	Henry Maitland Clark
Majority	17,965 (39.1%)
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for North Antrim
Incumbent
Assumed office  June 25, 1998
Born	6 April 1926 (1926-04-06) (age 83) Armagh, Northern Ireland
Political party	Democratic Unionist Party
Spouse	Eileen Paisley
Residence	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Religion	Christian; Protestant Faith; Free Presbyterian
Website	http://www.ianpaisley.org

Ian Richard Kyle Paisley (born 6 April 1926) is a veteran politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the largest single grouping in the 2007 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, he was elected First Minister with Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness as deputy First Minister on May 8, 2007.

In addition to co-founding and leading the DUP (from 1971 to 2008), he is a founding member and immediate past Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. Paisley has been a UK Member of Parliament for the constituency of North Antrim since 1970, and is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for the same constituency.

In 2005, Paisley's political party became the largest Unionist party in Northern Ireland, displacing his long-term rivals, the Ulster Unionists (UUP), who had dominated Unionist politics in Northern Ireland since the partition of Ireland. Paisley is also an author and speaker.

On 4 March 2008 he announced that he would step down as First Minister and leader of the DUP after the US-Northern Ireland Investment Conference in May 2008.^[1]. Peter Robinson duly took over as DUP leader on 31 May 2008, and replaced Paisley as First Minister on 5 June 2008.^[2]

On 12 March 2009 Paisley launched the Northern Ireland Friends Of Israel in Belfast at the Great Hall, Stormont.^[3][4]

Personal life

Ian Paisley was born in Armagh, County Armagh and brought up in the town of Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland where his father James Kyle Paisley was an Independent Baptist pastor. The senior Paisley had served in the Ulster Volunteers under Edward Carson. ^[5] His Scottish mother Isabella Paisley was instrumental in his evangelical conversion at the age of six^{[citation needed]}.

He married Eileen Cassells on 13 October 1956. They have five children, three daughters Sharon, Rhonda and Cherith and twin sons, Kyle and Ian. Three of their children have followed their father into politics or religion: Kyle, into the church; Ian is a DUP assemblyman; and daughter Rhonda a retired DUP councillor and artist. He has a brother, Harold, who currently preaches the Gospel in the United States and Canada.

Following rumours, it was confirmed in July 2004 that Paisley had been undergoing tests for an undisclosed illness and in 2005 Ian Paisley, Jr. confirmed that his father had been gravely ill. Ian Paisley confirmed in 2006 that he had made a full recovery.

Religious career

During his time working on the farm, the young Paisley felt that he received a vocation to enter the Christian ministry. He undertook theological training at the Barry School of Evangelism (eventually renamed the South Wales Bible College which was later replaced by the Evangelical Theological College of Wales), and later, for a year, at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Hall in Belfast.

In 1946 he was ordained at a ceremony in the independent Ravenhill Evangelical Mission Church on the Ravenhill Road, Belfast. Four ministers from four different denominations performed various roles in the service but some have questioned whether they had ecclesiastical authority from their churches to participate.

The Free Presbyterian Church

In the early 1950s the local Presbyterian presbytery in Crossgar, County Down revoked permission for Ian Paisley to use the local Lissara Presbyterian Church Hall for a Gospel Mission choosing rather to allow a dance to take place. Paisley was outraged at this decision and viewed this as another example of the Presbyterian Church's fall from The Word of God. In conjunction with the Lissara Kirk session Ian Paisley helped to establish the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster at Crossgar, County Down. Following a vote in his own church he joined the Free Presbyterian Church and was subsequently elected the second moderator of the new denomination. He held this post for several decades until he was succeeded in January 2008 by Rev. Ron Johnstone. His September 2007 announcement that he was standing down followed press reports of controversy in the Free Presbyterian Church over his political role as First Minister of Northern Ireland

Writings

Paisley eventually set up his own newspaper in February 1966, the Protestant Telegraph, a strongly anti-Catholicism paper, as a mechanism for further spreading his message.^[6] He has authored numerous books and pamphlets on religious and political subjects including a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.

Doctor Paisley

Paisley's use of the title 'Dr' derived initially from a 1954 qualification from the (outlawed)^[7] American Pioneer Theological Seminary in Rockville, Illinois. Later this was somewhat legitimised by an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree awarded by Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian college in Greenville, South Carolina that was unaccredited at the time. Bob Jones, Jr. was a close personal friend and, with Paisley, a leader in evangelical Christianity. Paisley continues to maintain a friendly relationship with the institution and has often spoken at the University's annual Bible Conference.

Campaign against homosexuality

He preaches against homosexuality and supports laws criminalising its practice. Intertwining his religious and political views, "Save Ulster from Sodomy" was a campaign launched by Paisley in 1977, in opposition to the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform (Northern Ireland), established in 1974. Paisley's campaign sought to prevent the extension to Northern Ireland of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 which had decriminalised homosexual acts between males over 21 years of age in England and Wales. The campaign failed when legislation was passed in 1982 as a result of the previous year's ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Dudgeon v. United Kingdom.^[8]

Campaign against National Lottery

In 1994, warning of dire consequences in encouraging the average Briton to gamble instead of earning a living, Paisley bitterly opposed the creation of the state-run National Lottery, resulting in the DUP becoming the only major British political party to campaign against it.^{[citation needed]}

Religious views

Paisley promotes a form of Biblical literalism, which he describes as "Bible Protestantism". The website of Paisley's public relations arm, the European Institute of Protestant Studies (ianpaisley.org), describes the Institute's purpose as to "expound the Bible, expose the Papacy, and to promote, defend and maintain Bible Protestantism in Europe and further afield." Paisley's website describes a number of doctrinal areas in which he believes that the "Roman church" (which he termed Popery) has deviated from the Bible and thus from true Christianity. These include the doctrine of transubstantiation, which Paisley claims on his website has given rise to "revolting superstitions and idolatrous abuses", the veneration of saints and the Virgin Mary (excessive and not Biblically supported, in Paisley's view), and the institution of the Papacy, which Paisley believes has no biblical foundation.

In 1988, when Pope John Paul II delivered a speech to the European Parliament, Paisley shouted "I Denounce you as the AntiChrist!" and held up a red poster reading "Pope John Paul II ANTICHRIST" in black letters. John Paul continued with his address after Paisley was ejected from the hemicycle by fellow MEPs.^{[9][10][11][12]} Some reports claimed that other MEPs assisted in expelling him from the chamber ^[13], and that Paisley was booed and struck by other MEPs, who also hurled objects at him, leading to his hospitalisation^[14][15]. The elderly Otto von Habsburg helped to wrestle Paisley out of the room. It has been reported that Paisley brought several posters with him and when a poster was snatched away, he immediately re-commenced with a new poster^[15]

Paisley continued to denounce the Catholic Church and the Pope after the incident. In a television interview for The Unquiet Man, a 2001 documentary on Paisley's life, he expressed his pride at being the only person to have the courage to denounce the Pope. After the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, Paisley expressed sympathy for Catholics stating "We can understand how Roman Catholics feel at the death of the Pope and we would want in no way to interfere with their expression of sorrow and grief at this time."^[16] This was in contrast to Paisley's reaction to the death of Pope John XXIII in June 1963, when Paisley organised protests against the lowering of flags in public buildings after the death of the Pope .^[17]

He has claimed in an article that the seat no. 666 in the European Parliament is reserved for the Antichrist.^[18] His website also praises Slobodan Milošević, whom it claims was fighting a Vatican plot to destroy the Serbian Orthodox Church, and that "all Milosevic did was to lead the Serbs in their attempt to safeguard 1500 years of their heritage with the horrors and injustices of their World War II genocide ever before them."^[19]

He and his organisation have publicly spoken out against what he views to be blasphemy in popular culture, including criticism of the stage productions Jesus Christ Superstar and Jerry Springer: The Opera, as well as being strongly pro-life. Some of these views are in agreement with many Catholics, regardless of their theological differences, which has led to united opposition to abortion in Northern Ireland^[20], but not to a consensus on gay issues^[21].

Though often at political odds with the Republic of Ireland, he has some religious followers in the Republic.^[22] It was specifically in his religious capacity that he first agreed to meet the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. Paisley revised this stance in September 2004, when he agreed to meet Ahern in his political capacity as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party. Known for a sense of humour, at an early meeting with Ahern at the Irish embassy in London, Paisley requested breakfast and asked for boiled eggs; when Ahern asked him why he had wanted boiled eggs, Paisley quipped "it would be hard for you to poison them", much to Ahern's amusement.^[23]

Paisley, an ardent teetotaller all his life, has sometimes asked journalists and nationalist politicians "let me smell your breath" when they asked him tough questions, insinuating that they had taken on board some alcohol, or "devil's buttermilk" as he often puts it.

Political career

Early activism and paramilitary involvement

Ian Paisley pictured in military regalia.

From the majority unionist community, Paisley was among those invited in 1956 to a special meeting at the Ulster Unionist Party's offices in Glengall Street, Belfast. Many Loyalists who were to become major figures in the 1960s and 1970 also attended, and the meeting's declared purpose was to organise the defence of Protestant areas against anticipated Irish Republican Army (IRA) activity, as the old Ulster Protestant Association had done after partition in 1920.^[24] The new body decided to call itself Ulster Protestant Action (UPA), and the first year of its existence was taken up with the discussion of vigilante patrols, street barricades, and drawing up lists of IRA suspects in both Belfast and in rural areas.^[25]

Even though no IRA threat materialised in Belfast, and despite it becoming clear that the IRA's activities during the Border Campaign were to be limited to the border areas, Ulster Protestant Action remained in being (the UPA was to later become the Protestant Unionist Party in 1966). Factory and workplace branches were formed under the UPA, including one by Paisley in Belfast's Ravenhill area under his direct control. The concern of the UPA increasingly came to focus on the defence of 'Bible Protestantism' and Protestant interests where jobs and housing were concerned. As Paisley came to dominate Ulster Protestant Action, he received his first convictions for public order offences. In June 1959, a major riot occurred on the Shankill Road in Belfast following a rally at which he had spoken.^[26].

Paisley, along with Noel Doherty established the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee which in turn established the paramilitary organisation Ulster Protestant Volunteers on on 17 April 1966 at a parade in the Shankill area of Belfast ^[27](Boulton 34). Paisley then went on to establish another paramilitary group, Third Force, on 1 April 1981 ^[28][29][30]. Finally, the paramilitary group Ulster Resistance was established by Paisley, also in 1981^[31][32].

Beginning a career of "No"

The majority of Paisley's political career was characterised by vehement opposition to accommodation of the aspirations and policies of the minority nationalist community in Northern Ireland. This first came to general public attention in the 1960s when he campaigned against Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O'Neill's rapprochement with the Republic of Ireland and his meetings with Taoiseach of the Republic, Seán Lemass, a veteran of Easter 1916 and the anti-Treaty IRA. He opposed efforts by O'Neill to deliver civil rights to the nationalists, which included the abolition of gerrymandering of local electoral areas for the election of urban and county councils. In 1964 his demand that the police remove an Irish Tricolour from Sinn Féin's Belfast offices led to two days of rioting, after this was followed through (see Flags and Emblems Act – the public display of any symbol which could cause a breach of the peace was illegal until Westminster repealed the Flags Act in 1987).^[33] Paisley's approach led him in turn to oppose O'Neill's successors as Prime Minister, Major James Chichester-Clark (later called Lord Moyola) and Brian Faulkner.

In 1969, he was jailed along with Ronald Bunting for organising an illegal counter-demonstration against a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in Armagh. He was released during a general amnesty for people convicted of political offenses. ^[34]

Electoral success and the DUP foundation

In the 1970 UK general election Paisley was elected the member of Parliament (MP) for the North Antrim constituency which he has retained since then and is now the longest serving MP from Northern Ireland. The following year, 1971 Paisley and Desmond Boal established the most successful and longest lasting of his political movements, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which replaced his Protestant Unionist Party. It soon won seats at local council, provincial, national and European level; Paisley was elected one of Northern Ireland's three Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) at the first elections to the Brussels and Strasbourg-based European Parliament in 1979, holding a rare, triple mandate, as an MEP, an MP, and a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). On his first day he attempted to interrupt the then President of the European Council Jack Lynch, Taoiseach of Ireland, but was shouted down by fellow MEPs.

Paisley easily retained his seat in every European election until he stood down in 2004, receiving the highest popular vote of any British MEP (although as Northern Ireland uses a different electoral system to Great Britain for European elections, the figures are not strictly comparable)^[35].

The DUP has been elected to each of the Northern Ireland conventions and assemblies set up since the party's creation. For a long time it was the principal challenger to the major unionist party, the Ulster Unionist Party (known for a time in the 1970s and 1980s as the Official Unionist Party (OUP) to distinguish it from the then multitude of other unionist parties, some set up by deposed former leaders).

In the 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly elections, the DUP overtook the UUP to become the largest party in Northern Ireland, achieving thirty seats to the UUP's twenty-seven, and in the 2005 UK General Election, achieving almost twice their vote share and taking nine seats to the UUP's one (successfully unseating then UUP leader David Trimble) and becoming the fourth largest party in the British House of Commons.

The 1973 Sunningdale agreement: Opposed

Paisley opposed the 1972 suspension by the British government of Edward Heath of the Northern Ireland parliament and government (known metonymically by the term Stormont due to the location of Parliament Buildings on the Stormont estate). He opposed the Sunningdale Agreement which sought to rework relationships between Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, and which provided for a power-sharing executive (government) involving both communities in Northern Ireland, and a controversial all-island Council of Ireland linking Northern Ireland and the Republic on a legal but not constitutional level. Sunningdale collapsed following the Ulster Workers' Council Strike, which cut water and electricity supplies to many homes, and the failure of the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Merlyn Rees and the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, to defend the power-sharing executive. Supporters of Paisley played an important role in orchestrating the strike. In January 1974, he (Paisley) was subdued and thrown out of the Stormont Assembly by members of the RUC.

In April 1977, Paisley famously declared he would retire from politics if a forthcoming United Unionist Action Council general strike was unsuccessful. The strike failed, but Paisley did not keep the promise.

In December 1981 the United States State Department revoked his visa, citing his "divisive rhetoric".^[36]

The 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement: 'Ulster says no'

In the 1980s Paisley, like all the major Unionist leaders, opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985), signed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Dr. Garret FitzGerald. The Agreement provided for an Irish input into the governing of Northern Ireland, through an Anglo-Irish Secretariat based at Maryfield, outside Belfast and meetings of the Anglo-Irish Conference, co-chaired by the Republic's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Britain's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Unionists objected due to the fact that the Agreement was imposed on the people with no referendum, and to the notion of a foreign government "interfering" in the affairs of a part of the United Kingdom. Sinn Féin also objected.

A rally of protesters, estimated between 100,000 and 200,000 people (depending on which source), met in front of Belfast City Hall after a campaign dubbed after its slogan "Ulster Says No". This was where Nick Griffin took part alongside with Paisley.^[37] The rally, which was addressed by Paisley and then UUP leader James Molyneaux, passed off peacefully but was ignored by the government. On 9 December 1986, Paisley was once again ejected from the European Parliament for continually interrupting a speech by Mrs Thatcher.^[38]

In 1985, he and the rest of the Unionist MPs resigned from Parliament at Westminster in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement and were, all but one (Jim Nicholson, who lost his seat to the Social Democratic and Labour Party's Seamus Mallon), returned in the resulting by-elections.

1995: Drumcree Standoff

Paisley is a former member of the Orange Institution.^[39] He addresses the annual gathering of the Independent Orange Order every Twelfth of July.

In 1995, he played a part in the Drumcree conflict over marching at Drumcree, County Armagh between the Orange Order and local residents of the Garvaghy Road. The march passed off after the decision was made by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) to allow it and Paisley ended the march hand in hand with David Trimble who appeared to perform a "Victory Jig". This "Victory Jig" was seen by some as an act of triumphalism.^[40]

The 1998 Belfast Agreement: No

Paisley's DUP was initially involved in the negotiations under former United States Senator George J. Mitchell that led to the Belfast Agreement of 1998. However the party withdrew in protest when Sinn Féin, a republican party with links to the Provisional Irish Republican Army,^[41] was allowed to participate after its ceasefire. Paisley and his party opposed the Agreement in the referendum that followed its signing, and which saw it approved by over 70% of the voters in Northern Ireland and by over 90% of voters in the Republic of Ireland.

Although Paisley often stresses his loyalty to the Crown, he accused Queen Elizabeth of being Tony Blair's "parrot" when she voiced approval of the Agreement. The claim is reflective of the current custom in the United Kingdom of the Monarch reflecting the position of the government, never publicly contradicting official government policy.

As part of the deal, the Republic altered the controversial Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland, which had originally claimed its government's de jure right to govern the whole island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland.

The DUP fought the resulting election to the Northern Ireland Assembly, to which Paisley was elected, while keeping his seats in the Westminster and European parliaments. The DUP took two seats in the multi-party power-sharing executive (Paisley, like the leaders of the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin chose not to become a minister) but those DUP members serving as ministers (Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds) refused to attend meetings of the Executive Committee (cabinet) in protest at Sinn Féin's participation.^[42]

Having spent most of his career, as he himself jokingly admitted once, saying 'No', Paisley assumed the chairmanship of the Agriculture committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly created by the Belfast Agreement, where he was praised (even by Sinn Féin members with whom he worked) as an effective, coordinating chairman. The Minister for Agriculture, Nationalist SDLP's Bríd Rodgers, remarked that she and Paisley had a "workmanlike" relationship.^[43]

2000s: Compromise and Power

McGuinness, George W. Bush and Ian Paisley in December 2007.

After a number of stop/starts the Executive and Assembly created by the 1998 Belfast Agreement were ultimately suspended in October 2002 amid unionist unhappiness on the nature of Provisional IRA disarmament and the alleged discovery of a Republican spy network operating in Stormont.

During fresh elections in 2003 Paisley and the DUP campaigned on the need for re-negotiation of the Belfast Agreement and emerged from the elections as the leading party entitled to the position of First Minister with Sinn Féin entitled to the Deputy First minister position. Progress could now only be achieved with Paisleys agreement. He refused to accept Sinn Féin in Government without further progress, and the British Government maintained the suspensions of the institutions.

Paisley and the DUP entered negotiations with the Governments and the other parties on the steps required and the changes needed to the Belfast Agreement. The December 2004 Comprehensive Agreement upheld the principles of the Belfast Agreement but foundered on the DUP demand for photographic evidence of IRA decommissioning. Following IRA disarmament in September 2005, the Governments set deadlines for the DUP and Sinn Féin to agree on a new Executive, with the alternative being direct rule from London.

In the October 2006 St Andrews Agreement, agreed on his fiftieth wedding anniversary, Paisley and the DUP agreed to new elections, and support for a new executive including Sinn Féin subject to Sinn Féin acceptance of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. This reversed decades of Paisley opposition to Sinn Féin such as his comments on 12 July 2006 in Portrush, following Orange Order parades when he said, "[Sinn Fein] are not fit to be in partnership with decent people. They are not fit to be in the government of Northern Ireland and it will be over our dead bodies if they ever get there."^[44]

Sinn Féin did endorse the PSNI, and in the subsequent election Paisley and the DUP received an increased share of the vote and increased their assembly seats from 30 to 36. On Monday March 26, 2007, the date of the British Government deadline for devolution or dissolution, Paisley led a DUP delegation to a meeting with a Sinn Féin delegation led by Gerry Adams which agreed on a DUP proposal that the executive would be established on 8 May. Later in April, Paisley met in Dublin with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and publicly shook his hand, something Paisley had refused to do until there was peace in Northern Ireland.

On 8 May power was devolved, the Assembly met, and Paisley was elected as First Minister of Northern Ireland with Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness as the deputy First Minister. Speaking at Stormont to an invited international audience he said, "Today at long last we are starting upon the road — I emphasise starting — which I believe will take us to lasting peace in our province."^[45] Paisley and McGuinness subsequently established a good working relationship and were dubbed by the Northern Irish media as the "Chuckle Brothers."^[46]

Winding down

Wikinews has related news: Northern Ireland's Ian Paisley to resign and retire

At the age of 78 he retired from his European Parliament seat at the 2004 elections and was succeeded by Jim Allister.

However, he again retained his North Antrim seat in the 2005 UK general election. In 2005, Paisley was made a Privy Councillor, an appointment traditionally bestowed upon leaders of political parties in the British Parliament.^[47] In 2007, aged 81, he became First Minister of Northern Ireland. Upon the death of Piara Khabra in June 2007, Paisley became the oldest sitting British MP. In September 2007, he confirmed that he would contest North Antrim at the next General Election as well as serving the full four years as first minister stating "I might as well make hay while the sun shines."^[48]

Following his January 2008 retirement as a religious leader and pressure from party insiders, on 4 March 2008 Paisley announced that he would stand down as DUP leader and First Minister of Northern Ireland in May 2008.^[1] On 17 April, Peter Robinson was elected unopposed as leader of the DUP^[49] and succeeded Paisley as First Minister at a special sitting of the assembly on 5 June 2008.^[50]

Paisley was awarded the 2008 'Oldie of The Year Award' from The Oldie Magazine for his contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process.

Analysis and evaluation

Relationship with the nationalist SDLP

From the 1960s, one of his main rivals was civil rights leader and co-founder of the nationalist SDLP, John Hume.

British Government papers released in 2002, show that in 1971 Paisley attempted to reach a compromise with the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).^[51] The attempt was made via then British Cabinet Secretary, Sir Burke Trend. The papers show that Paisley had indicated he could "reach an accommodation with leaders of the Catholic minority, which would provide the basis of a new government in Stormont." It appears that the move was rejected once it became clear to the SDLP that the deal would favour the unionist majority. Speaking about the deal in 2002 Paisley said:

Though their parties are often at loggerheads, Hume and Paisley worked jointly on behalf of Northern Ireland in the European Parliament and on occasion worked jointly in the House of Commons. Indeed the complexity of their relationship was demonstrated when it was discovered that Hume had visited Paisley's home to dine with Ian and his wife, Eileen, on Boxing Day (26 December) one year in the 1990s.

John Hume tells the story of the occasion when he said to Ian Paisley, "Ian, if the word 'no' were to be removed from the English language, you'd be speechless, wouldn't you!" Paisley replied, "No, I wouldn't!"^[52]

Defender or demagogue?

His critics see his work in the European Parliament and in Stormont of late and argue that he could have been, had he so wished, one of the greatest builders of a new inclusive Northern Ireland. To his supporters, Paisley is seen as a passionate defender of the union between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. They argue that he stood up for unionists who were under attack from nationalists from the Republic of Ireland and from British governments willing to give away "unionist rights" and ignore unionist fears to placate nationalists and the Provisional Irish Republican Army. To some, he is seen as the wrecker whose extremism almost destroyed Northern Ireland (see Richard Quinn (victim of The Troubles). To others, Ian Paisley is the great defender, the protector who saved Northern Ireland from "Rome Rule" and "Dublin rule".

To his opponents however, including some unionists, Paisley is seen as a demagogue, a crude rabble-rouser who spent his political career saying 'no'; "no" to O'Neill's reform, "no" to contacts with the Republic, "no" to Sunningdale, "no" to the convention, "no" to James Prior's rolling devolution, "no" to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, "no" to the Belfast Agreement. By them he is seen as a uniquely destructive influence whose extremism lost potential friends and helped alienate people outside Northern Ireland sympathetic to unionism. Paisley has never accepted any culpability for any violence, despite his many fiery speeches, which often presented the political conflict in stark Biblical terms as a millenarian battle between good and evil (see Historicism).

In September 2005, he was criticised for stoking unionist violence in Belfast over the 75-metre diversion of a provocative Orange Order march along a thoroughfare serving as a boundary between nationalist and unionist communities. Quoted by The Guardian newspaper, he called the diversion "the spark which kindles a fire there could be no putting out".^[53] Widespread loyalist riots followed, producing, among other results, what Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain called "serious attempts to kill police in some instances".^[54]

References

Bibliography

• The Protestant Reformation: The Preaching of Ian R. K. Paisley : Four Biographical Sermons : Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, William Tyndale (Audio CD)
• The Soul of the Question and the Question of the Soul
• Christian Foundations
• Protestants Remember!
• Union with Rome: The Courtship and Proposed Marriage of Protestantism by Romanism and the Objections Thereto (Ravenhill pulpit) (Ravenhill pulpit)
• Ravenhill Pulpit: The Preaching of Ian R.K. Paisley
• Souvenir booklet: The 50th Anniversary of the Larne Gun-Running (Ravenhill pulpit) (Ravenhill pulpit)
• The Five Protestant Bishops whom Rome Burned: John Hooper, Robert Ferrar, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, Thomas Cranmer
• Jesus Christ: Not Able to Sin
• No Pope Here
• God's Ultimatum to the Nation
• Getting Your Priorities Right (Martyr's memorial pulpit) (Martyr's memorial pulpit)
• The Authority of the Scriptures vs. the Confusion of Translations: Dr. Ian Paisley Thunders Out For the King James Version and its texts! (B.F.T)
• Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans (Ian R.K.Paisley Library)
• Classic Sermons
• George Whitefield
• Messages from the Prison Cell
• Sermons With Startling Titles
• Betrayal of our National Heritage
• U.D.I.
• The Unaged Birth and the Unembellished Gospel
• Some Kidd But Definitely No Goat!: The Story of the Witty, the Learned, the Eccentric and the Controversial Dr. Kidd of Aberdeen
• For Such a Time as This
• The Ulster Problem, Spring 1972: A Discussion of the True Situation in Northern Ireland
• The Living Bible: The Livid Libel of the Scriptures of Truth: an Exposure of the So-called Bible for Everyone
• The Jesuits: Their Start, Sign, System, Secrecy, Strategy
• The Archbishop in the Arms of the Pope of Rome!: Protestant Ministers in the Hands of the Police of Rome!
• Three great reformers
• The Massacre of St. Bartholomew: A Record of Papal Terror and Protestant Triumph in France in the Sixteenth Century
• Billy Graham and the Church of Rome
• False Views by Modern Man: An Exposure of "Good News for Modern Man — The New Testament — Today's English Version"
• Grow Old Along With Me
• Paisley: The Man and his Message
• The Ecumenical Nightmare: Church Unity in 1980!
• Text a Day Keeps the Evil Away
• Into the Millennium : 20th century Messages for 21st century Living
• The Rent Veils at Calvary
• The Fundamentalist and his State: Address delivered on June 15, 1976 to the World Congress of Fundamentalists meeting at Usher Hall, Edinburgh
• America's Debt to Ulster
• The Crown of Thorns
• An Enemy has Done This: Terror and Treachery in Northern Ireland
• Expository Sermons
• The Garments of Christ
• My Plea for the Old Sword
• Christian Foundations
• Sermons for Special Occasions
• Paisley's Pocket Preacher: Thumbnail gospel sermons
• The Livid Libel of the Scriptures of Truth: An Exposure of the So-called Bible in Everyday Language for Everyone (B.F.T)
• The Revised English Bible; The Antichrist Bible (an exposure)
• Be Sure
• Ulster: The Facts
• The Crown Rights of Jesus Christ: An address delivered by request before the General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church of America
• An Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans,: Prepared in the Prison Cell
• The Common Bible (Revised Standard Version): The Bible of the Antichrist
• Benjamin Wills Newton Maligned But Magnificent : A Centenary Tribute, 1999
• 'The 59 Revival: An Authentic History of the Great Ulster Awakening of 1859

Sources and further information

• BBC \ian_paisley06.ram
• Steve Bruce, God save Ulster! The religion and politics of Paisleyism. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1986.
• Steve Bruce, Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007.
• Dennis Cooke, Persecuting Zeal: a portrait of Ian Paisley, Brandon Books, 1996.
• Martin Dillon, God and the Gun, Orion Books, London.
• Martha Abele Mac Iver, "Ian Paisley and the Reformed Tradition", Political Studies, September 1987.
• Ed Moloney & Andy Pollak, Paisley, Poolbeg Press, 1986.
• Rhonda Paisley, Ian Paisley: My Father, Marshall Pickering, 1988.
• Clifford Smyth, Ian Paisley: Voice of Protestant Ulster. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic, 1987.

See also

• List of Northern Ireland members of the Privy Council

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ian Paisley

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Ian Paisley

• The American Ireland Fund host Paisley and McGuinness at NYSE
• BBC Extended interview with Ian Paisley (April 2006; interviewed by William Crawley)
• TheyWorkForYou.com – Ian Paisley MP
• DUP – Ian Paisley
• Ian Paisley's European Institute of Protestant Studies
• Free Presbyterian Church
• Biography of Ian Paisley
• Recordings and Photos of the visit by Ian Paisley to the College Historical Society in October 2007.
• Speeches made by and references to Ian Paisley in the Stormont Parliament, 1970-72
• The Oldie Magazine