N. Ireland's Paisley dies

Ian Paisley's wife and the political party he co-founded, Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), both confirmed the politician's death on Friday.

"Ian was one of the largest political figures in Northern Ireland, he made a massive contribution," Paisley's successor as First Minister, Peter Robinson, told the BBC. "He had a personality which we are hardly ever likely to see again. Even those who thought the least of his politics thought the most of him as a person.

Known for decades as a hardliner when it came to Northern Ireland's Catholic community and those advocating a unified Ireland and separation from the United Kingdom, Paisley ultimately softened his stance and set up a power-sharing government in Belfast. Northern Ireland's political troubles were largely divided along sectarian lines, with Catholics generally favoring independence and protestants advocating UK membership.

Starting in 2007, in what for decades had seemed an unthinkable development, Paisley agreed to be first minister of Northern Ireland, but to take on Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness as his deputy. Sinn Fein is the political arm of the now-defunct Irish Republican Army paramilitary group.

The agreement, brokered in St Andrews in Scotland in 2006, led to remarkable photos of Paisley, McGuinness, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams and a beaming British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It ended decades of unrest in Northern Ireland, known as "the Troubles."

A significant, surprising friendship

Once nicknamed "Doctor No" for his recalcitrant positions on the Catholic Church and Sinn Fein, a change in Northern Ireland's political landscape might have helped influence the decision; Paisley's DUP emerged as the strongest single faction in the parliament ahead of the unity government deal.

In previous political negotiations seeking to end Northern Irish unrest, Paisley had usually stood against compromise agreements. He campaigned against the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the peace deal that paved the way for the finalized powersharing agreement eight years later. In 1988, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg where he spent a quarter of a century as an MEP, Paisley interrupted a speech by visiting Pope John Paul II, shouting: "I denounce you, Antichrist! I refuse you as Christ's enemy and Antichrist with all your false doctrines."

The unlikely bedfellows Paisley and McGuinness ultimately formed something of a tag team, winning the media nickname "The Chuckle Brothers" (after a British childrens' TV show) for their surprisingly easy manner with each other.

"I think we confounded the world by him, a pro-British, pro-Unionist politician, being able to work in a positive spirit with myself, an Irish Republican," McGuinness told Irish broadcaster RTE. "A friendship grew out of that, and it's a friendship that lasted to this very day."

However, Paisley, then well into his eighties, began to withdraw from public life. In January 2008, he stepped down as moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church - a role he had held for almost six decades - and a few months later as the first minister and DUP leader.

Paisley held onto his seat in the British parliament in Westminster until 2010 - 40 years after becoming MP for North Antrim - before being granted a position in the House of Lords as Lord Bannside. The title, tied to a now-defunct constituency, was chosen by Paisley because it was where he started his political career.

Paisley had suffered health problems for several years and had a pacemaker fitted in 2011. He is survived by his wife Eileen and five children.

msh/pfd (AFP, dpa, Reuters)