![]() ![]() ![]() He liked to whip his audiences into a frenzy with his rhetoric about “Old Red Socks” (the Pope) the “great whore… with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication” (the Roman Catholic Church) and about those who “breed like rabbits and multiply like vermin” (its adherents). His fiery blend of sectarian preaching and political oratory, which drew heavily on the book of Revelation and the spicier parts of the Old Testament, proved highly potent during the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Strike, when Loyalists - enraged by plans for an all-Ireland dimension to their government - brought down the power-sharing administration established under the Sunningdale Agreement.Īt the core of Paisley’s being was a visceral loathing of the Roman Catholic Church, which would have done credit to a 17th-century Ranter. ![]() His political career was repeatedly written off, yet by its end he had outmanoeuvred his moderate Unionist rivals to become Ulster’s elder statesman, the spokesman for a majority of Unionists and undisputed leader of the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly.įew could have imagined such an outcome in the Sixties, when the young, uncouth firebrand first led working-class Protestants in vociferous opposition to the genteel Unionism of Terence O’Neill, then prime minister of Northern Ireland. Paisley was often dismissed by commentators outside the Province as a bigot and a buffoon. He took an uncompromising sectarian line before, during and after the “Troubles” - for the outbreak of which he bore some responsibility - yet ended his political life as First Minister sharing power with his old enemy, Sinn Fein. Lord Bannside, who has died aged 88, was better known as the Reverend Ian Paisley, a towering figure who founded Northern Ireland’s Free Presbyterian Church and Democratic Unionist Party. ![]()
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