Northern Ireland's Protestant war horse, the 83-year-old Rev. Ian Paisley, has announced he is ready to relinquish the County Antrim seat he has held in Britain's House of Commons for 40 years and which he used as a platform to defend the cause of militant Unionism. For many in the province, Paisley is still "Dr. No," the rabidly anti-Catholic minister who incited sectarian hatred and obstructed peacemaking for decades. "Never, never, never," he famously said in response to a 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement that laid the groundwork for self-determination and a devolved provincial government.
Near the end of his career, however, Paisley gave meaning to the phrase "never say never" by joining a power-sharing government with the enemy, former Irish Republican Army leader Martin McGuinness, bringing an official close to the bloodshed known simply as "the Troubles."
A founder of the Free Presbyterian Church of Northern Ireland, Paisley railed against smoking, drinking and homosexuality, and reviled the Roman Catholic Church. He was elected to the European Parliament in the 1970s, and when Pope John Paul II delivered a speech there in 1988, Paisley shouted, "I denounce you as the antichrist!" His tolerance was no greater for those who tried to wrest Northern Ireland out of British hands by force.
