The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
- Hannah Arendt
The news came in yesterday, March 2nd, 2010. Let me quote from RTE News:
“Former Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley will not seek re-election in the forthcoming general election. The 83-year-old founder and ex-leader of the Democratic Unionist Party is to relinquish the North Antrim seat he first won in 1970. Mr Paisley announced his decision to stand down in his local constituency paper, the Ballymena Guardian.
Famed for his firebrand oratory, Mr Paisley was a founding member of the Free Presbyterian Church in Ireland in 1951. His evangelical theology heavily influenced his political views and throughout the Troubles he forthrightly denounced Catholicism and the papacy.
During the conflict he was a fierce critic of power-sharing with nationalists and of the Republic of Ireland having a say in Northern Ireland’s affairs. But in his later political life, the one-time cheer-leader for hardline unionism underwent somewhat of a political conversion which finally saw him enter office with his long-time enemy, Sinn Féin.
Mr Paisley stood down as First Minister in 2008. He was replaced by his long-time DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson.”
Ref: http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0302/nipolitics.html
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley was born on April 6, 1926 in Armagh, County Armagh in Northern Ireland. Even though one of his recent accomplishments was assuming the duty as First Minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to June 2008, history will mainly remember him as a militant Protestant leader in a sectarian conflict that divided Northern Ireland. When the conflict gained intensity during the 1960′s Paisley used his ability to combine the language of biblical certainty with that of politics at a time when many Protestants grew increasingly concerned about their constitutional superiority over the Catholic population. His ideological message, a combination of militant anti-Catholicism and militant unionism, and his active involvement in the oppression of the Catholic minority unnecessarily prolonged the Irish Troubles even at times when the people of Northern Ireland became increasingly tired of violence. By the time of the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998, Paisley had already lost touch with the people he claimed to represent, and his election as First Minister of Northern Ireland was more or less a symbolic act to satisfy the remaining radical Protestant elements. He resigned the post after only twelve months, may it be due to his age, or the inability to function as a leader in times of peace. I will never blame anybody for being old, but I will blame anybody who maintains old ideas and ideologies that reflect a blatant inability of learning from experience.
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Ian Paisley Will Not Seek Re-Election
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
- Hannah Arendt
“Former Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley will not seek re-election in the forthcoming general election. The 83-year-old founder and ex-leader of the Democratic Unionist Party is to relinquish the North Antrim seat he first won in 1970. Mr Paisley announced his decision to stand down in his local constituency paper, the Ballymena Guardian.
Famed for his firebrand oratory, Mr Paisley was a founding member of the Free Presbyterian Church in Ireland in 1951. His evangelical theology heavily influenced his political views and throughout the Troubles he forthrightly denounced Catholicism and the papacy.
During the conflict he was a fierce critic of power-sharing with nationalists and of the Republic of Ireland having a say in Northern Ireland’s affairs. But in his later political life, the one-time cheer-leader for hardline unionism underwent somewhat of a political conversion which finally saw him enter office with his long-time enemy, Sinn Féin.
Mr Paisley stood down as First Minister in 2008. He was replaced by his long-time DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson.”
Ref: http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0302/nipolitics.html
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley was born on April 6, 1926 in Armagh, County Armagh in Northern Ireland. Even though one of his recent accomplishments was assuming the duty as First Minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to June 2008, history will mainly remember him as a militant Protestant leader in a sectarian conflict that divided Northern Ireland. When the conflict gained intensity during the 1960′s Paisley used his ability to combine the language of biblical certainty with that of politics at a time when many Protestants grew increasingly concerned about their constitutional superiority over the Catholic population. His ideological message, a combination of militant anti-Catholicism and militant unionism, and his active involvement in the oppression of the Catholic minority unnecessarily prolonged the Irish Troubles even at times when the people of Northern Ireland became increasingly tired of violence. By the time of the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998, Paisley had already lost touch with the people he claimed to represent, and his election as First Minister of Northern Ireland was more or less a symbolic act to satisfy the remaining radical Protestant elements. He resigned the post after only twelve months, may it be due to his age, or the inability to function as a leader in times of peace. I will never blame anybody for being old, but I will blame anybody who maintains old ideas and ideologies that reflect a blatant inability of learning from experience.