Scottish Catholic Observer

Ian Paisley, former First Minister of Northern Ireland, has died aged 88, his wife said today.

A historic figure in the politics of the North of Ireland, He was a party leader, an MP and an MEP, and become NI’s first minister in a power sharing arrangement with Sein Fein in 2007.

A political campaigner since 1950, Ian Paisley’s activism overlapped the terms of 12 US presidents, starting with Harry Truman and ending with Barack Obama.

He was also a religious leader, established his own church—the Free Presbytarian Church of Ulster—which has now spread to 11 countries, and he serving as its moderator for 57 years. Fiercely anti-Catholic, Mr Paisley once barracked Pope John Paul II in the European parliament, calling him the ‘Antichrist,’ however he softened in his later years, which saw him working with the mainly Catholic Sinn Fein in devolved government at Stormont. Mr Paisley said he had not shifted his beliefs, but that Northern Ireland had moved on.

On the verge of the power-sharing deal in 2007, he said: “People have come out of a dark tunnel and they can see there is a path out there for us. I think it has put a lot of faith and hope into people.”

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