THE once hardline Unionist leader, the Revd Ian Paisley, who this week announced his intention to step down as First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly after an economic conference in May aimed at US investment in the province, has denied that internal pressures have forced him to retire.
Mr Paisley, who has dominated Unionist politics for 40 years, and who frequently heckled Anglican and other church leaders on significant ecumenical occasions, had recently become embroiled in controversy over the employment of his son, Ian Paisley Jr, as a Westminister researcher.
It was also disclosed in recent weeks that the Paisleys paid £42,000 to rent office space in Ballymena from Mr Paisley Jr’s father-in-law.
Mr Paisley Jr was forced to step down as Junior Minister in the Assembly last month after concerns about his connections with a prominent Antrim businessman, Seymour Sweeney, on whose behalf he had lobbied. There was no suggestion of illegality.
Senior DUP figures expressed a desire for change because of these issues, and also in the shadow of the General Election looming next year. Influential figures in the party that Mr Paisley had been instrumental in forming felt that a new leader should be in place before that election.
Dr Paisley announced his resignation after weeks of speculation. “I came to this decision a few weeks ago when I was thinking very much about the [US] conference and what was going to come after it. I thought that was a marker, a very big marker, and it would be a very appropriate time for me to bow out.”
Speaking about his son’s difficulties, Mr Paisley said: “I am not the guardsman of my son. I think he has done very well. I think he has been wrongly accused. I think people who could not get after me got after him thinking they could hurt me.”
Tributes to Mr Paisley’s part in bringing about a working Assembly, and to his becoming a man of peace, have come from the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and from Gordon Brown.
|
back to News
previous story
|
next story 
back to top.gif "New, nearly new, and used cars for church and charity © site")
