Ian Paisley: Politicians and religious leaders react to death

[LeftishBrit]

Political and religious leaders have been reacting to the death of former Democratic Unionist Party leader and first minister Ian Paisley.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Mr Paisley, 88, had been "one of the most forceful and instantly recognisable characters in British politics".

His successor, Peter Robinson, said he was influential and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness said he had lost a friend. ...

He ended up leading a power-sharing executive at Stormont - although he had supported the strike to bring one down 30 years earlier...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-29185055

[non sociopath skin]

1. A difficult man and a turbulent priest to say the least ...

... but his contribution to ultimate peace in Northern Ireland can't be taken away from him.

For that, may he sleep well.

The Skin

[mackerel]

2. I'm mixed on Paisley.

He was absolutely instrumental in the Good Friday Peace Agreement but he was also instrumental in stirring up The Troubles.

It's hard for me to forget this Ian Paisley:

[Ken Burch]

3. He was a bit better at the end, but there's a lot that's tough to forgive.

His opposition to the Northern Irish Civil Rights Association, a group that simply fought for equal rights for the Catholic/Nationalist minority,and whose program didn't even include Irish unification(or reunification, depending on how you saw it)was indefensible(Paisley was one of the people who fought to restrict the march routes of the nonviolent Civil Rights marches, and probably played some role in instigating the violent suppression of the NICRA on Bloody Sunday, 1972)and his opposition to the Sunningdale Accords(opposition that sometimes included incitement of violent resistance)was simply stupid...Sunningdale would have created a power-sharing administration that did NOT include Sinn Fein(which at the time had little support among Catholics)and there was never any possible way of ending the conflict WITHOUT power-sharing.

I think the moderation he showed in his later years was mainly a fear of Judgment Day(something that would have been a real issue to a blood and thunder preacher like Paisley, who received his divinity degree at Bob Jones University...yes, THAT Bob Jones University).

[mackerel]

4. Bob Jones? now that is news to me