Ian Paisley

The Lord Bannside
Paisley in 2008
First Minister of Northern Ireland
In office
8 May 2007 – 5 June 2008
Serving with Martin McGuinness
Preceded by
  • Peter Hain[a] (as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland)
  • David Trimble (2002)
Succeeded byPeter Robinson
Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party
In office
30 September 1971 – 31 May 2008
Deputy
Preceded byParty established
Succeeded byPeter Robinson
Parliamentary offices
Member of the House of Lords
Life peerage
5 July 2010 – 12 September 2014
Member of the Legislative Assembly
for North Antrim
In office
25 June 1998 – 25 March 2011
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byDavid McIlveen
In office
20 October 1982 – 1986
Preceded byAssembly re-established
Succeeded byAssembly dissolved
In office
28 June 1973 – 1974
Preceded byAssembly created
Succeeded byAssembly abolished
Member of Parliament
for North Antrim
In office
18 June 1970 – 12 April 2010
Preceded byHenry Clark
Succeeded byIan Paisley Jr
Member of the European Parliament
for Northern Ireland
In office
7 June 1979 – 10 June 2004
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byJim Allister
Member of the Northern Ireland Forum
for North Antrim
In office
30 May 1996 – 25 April 1998
Preceded byForum established
Succeeded byForum dissolved
Member of the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention
for North Antrim
In office
1 May 1975 – 1976
Preceded byConvention founded
Succeeded byConvention dissolved
Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament
for Bannside
In office
16 April 1970 – 18 July 1973
Preceded byTerence O'Neill
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley

(1926-04-06)6 April 1926
Armagh, Northern Ireland
Died12 September 2014(2014-09-12) (aged 88)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Resting placeBallygowan, County Down
NationalityBritish
Political partyDUP (1971–2014)
Other political
affiliations
PUP (1966–1971)
Spouse
(m. 1956)
Children5, including Rhonda and Ian Jr
Alma materBarry School of Evangelism
Occupation
ProfessionMinister
WebsiteOfficial website
a. ^ During the periods of suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive, the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland assumed the responsibilities of the First Minister and deputy First Minister. The final Northern Ireland Secretary to act as First Minister was Peter Hain.

Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2008.

Paisley became a Protestant evangelical minister in 1946 and remained one for the rest of his life. In 1951 he co-founded the Reformed fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and was its leader until 2008. Paisley became known for his fiery sermons and regularly preached anti-Catholicism, anti-ecumenism and against homosexuality. He gained a large group of followers who were referred to as Paisleyites.

Paisley became involved in Ulster unionist/loyalist politics in the late 1950s. In the mid-late 1960s, he led and instigated loyalist opposition to the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. This contributed to the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s, a conflict that would engulf Northern Ireland for the next 30 years. In 1970 he became Member of Parliament for North Antrim and the following year he founded the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which he would lead for almost 40 years. In 1979 he became a Member of the European Parliament.

Throughout the Troubles, Paisley was seen as a firebrand and the face of hardline unionism. He opposed all attempts to resolve the conflict through power-sharing between unionists and Irish nationalists/republicans, and all attempts to involve the Republic of Ireland in Northern Irish affairs. His efforts helped bring down the Sunningdale Agreement of 1974. He also opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985, with less success. His attempts to create a paramilitary movement culminated in Ulster Resistance. Paisley and his party also opposed the Northern Ireland peace process and Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

In 2005, Paisley's DUP became the largest unionist party in Northern Ireland, displacing the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), which had dominated unionist politics since 1905 and had been an instrumental party in the Good Friday Agreement. In 2007, following the St Andrews Agreement, the DUP finally agreed to share power with republican party Sinn Féin. Paisley and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness became First Minister and deputy First Minister, respectively, in May 2007. He stepped down as First Minister and DUP leader in mid-2008,[1][2] and left politics in 2011. Paisley was made a life peer in 2010 as Baron Bannside.[3]

  1. ^ "Paisley to quit as first minister". BBC News. 4 March 2008. Archived from the original on 5 March 2008. Retrieved 4 March 2008.
  2. ^ "Robinson is new NI first minister". BBC. 5 June 2008. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  3. ^ "State – Crown Office". The London Gazette. No. 59467. 23 June 2010. p. 11801.

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