Childhood & Early Life
Ian Paisley was born Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, on April 6, 1926, in Armagh, Northern Ireland. His father was a Baptist preacher and his mother was a Christian evangelist.
Paisley gave his first sermon in 1941 when he was only 16. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister five years later.
In 1951, after a conflict with church elders, Paisley formed his own congregation, the ‘Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster’.
Paisley gained national fame, in 1956, after he illegally helped a 15-year-old Catholic girl escape to Scotland.
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Later Life
In 1956, Paisley co-founded of the ‘Ulster Protestant Action’ (UPA), one of several pro-Unionist militant organizations in Northern Ireland which remained active throughout ‘The Troubles’.
In 1959, he urged the UPA to attack Catholic homes in Belfast. Several businesses were ransacked and looted.
Paisley led a march in Belfast to force a local politician to remove the Irish flag from his office, in 1964. His rhetoric march ended in riots and mayhem that injureddozens.
In 1966, he co-founded a second pro-Unionist militant organization, the ‘Ulster Constitution Defence Committee’ (UCDC), which later aligned with the ‘Ulster Protestant Volunteers’ (UPV).
On June 6, 1966, the religious leader spearheadedthe march into Catholic neighborhoods of Belfast that led to riots. He was arrested and sentenced to three months in jail.
In 1969, the UPV firebombed water and electrical installations in Northern Ireland and Paisley blamed his rivals in the ‘Irish Republican Army’ (IRA) for the damage.
On April 28, 1969, support for Unionist PM Terence O'Neill waned following the bombings committed by the UPV but blamed on the IRA and he resigned from the post of Prime Minister.
In August 1969, wide scale riots in Belfast led to the deployment of British troops, officially beginning the period of civil unrest known as ‘The Troubles’
On April 16, 1970, special by-elections were held and O'Neill's vacated seat in North Antrim was won by Paisley, who went on to hold the position for the next 40 years.
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In 1971, he founded the ‘Democratic Unionist Party’ (DUP), which he ledfor the next thirty seven years.
In 1973, the ‘Sunningdale Agreement’ set up a framework for Unionists and Nationalists to share power in Northern Ireland. This was bitterly opposed by Paisley and the DUP.
In 1977, Paisley led a general strike to force the British government to take stronger measures against the IRA. Two years laterhe was elected to the European Parliament.
In 1981, he co-founded another pro-Unionist militant organization called the ‘Third Force’.
In 1998, eight parties in Ireland and Northern Ireland signed the Good Friday agreements in an attempt to bring peace to the region. Although 70% of the voters in Northern Ireland and 90% of the voters in the Republic of Ireland endorsed the agreement, Paisley's DUP refused to participate.
In 2003, Paisley's DUP gained a majority position in the Northern Ireland assembly (parliament). Ironically three years laterhe reverseddecades of opposition and agreed to a power sharing agreement with his lifelong rivals, Sinn Fein.
In 2007, Paisley became the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, the Republican Party’s Martin McGuinness serving as his Deputy First Minister. Paisley and McGuinnessestablish an amicable relationship andwere nicknamed the ‘Chuckle Brothers’.
In 2008, due to declining health among other reasons, Paisley stepped down as Prime Minister and rapidly began to isolate himself from public life.
Personal Life & Legacy
Paisley’s DUP is currently still the most powerful party in Northern Ireland and ‘The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster’, which he founded in 1951, now has 12,000 members worldwide.
He exchanged the nuptial vows with Eileen (nee Cassells) on October 13, 1956 and is survived by five children: Rhonda, Sharon, Cherith, Kyle and Ian Junior.
His son Ian Paisley, Jr. succeeded him in 2010 as the Member of Parliament representing North Antrim.
On 12 September 2014, surrounded by his wife of more than 50 years and his loving family, Paisley died of heart failure in a hospital in Belfast.A public memorial, organized in memory of the leader at the Ulster Hall,was attended by 800 guests.
