Ian Paisley

Ian Paisley (1926–2014) was a Northern Irish unionist politician and Protestant religious leader. He co-founded the Democratic Unionist Party and served as Northern Ireland’s first minister from 2007 to 2008.

Peter Robinson: A Democratic Unionist politician who succeeded Paisley as party leader and Northern Ireland’s first minister. Robinson became Paisley’s deputy and succeeded him in both leadership roles.
Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster: A Protestant denomination founded in Northern Ireland in 1951 by ministers who separated from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Paisley founded the church and served as its leading minister.
Save Ulster from Sodomy: A 1970s campaign led by Paisley against the extension of British laws decriminalizing homosexual acts to Northern Ireland. The campaign illustrates how Paisley joined religious conservatism to mass political mobilization.
Ulster Workers' Council strike: A 1974 loyalist strike that collapsed the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive established under the Sunningdale Agreement. Paisley supported the strike that ended Northern Ireland’s first power-sharing government.
John Hume: An Irish nationalist politician who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement and shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize. Hume’s constitutional approach and peace strategy sharply differed from Paisley’s earlier politics.
Martin McGuinness: An Irish republican leader who served as Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister alongside Paisley. Their partnership in government became a defining image of the 2007 power-sharing agreement.
Ulster Protestant Action: A loyalist political organization formed in Belfast in 1956 to defend Protestant interests and resist Irish unity. Paisley helped found this organization before entering party politics.
Sunningdale Agreement: A 1973 agreement establishing a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland and proposing a cross-border Council of Ireland. Paisley opposed the agreement and supported the strike that helped bring down its government.
Democratic Unionist Party leadership election, 2008: The party transition in which Paisley resigned as DUP leader and Peter Robinson succeeded him in 2008. The succession marked the end of Paisley’s command over the party he had founded.
Gerry Adams: An Irish republican politician who led Sinn Féin during much of the Northern Ireland peace process. Adams represented the republican movement with which Paisley’s party eventually shared government.

Linked from 12 pages