Paisley’s gift of the gab might be pure Blarney

IAN PAISLEY’s gift for fire and brimstone oratory is well known and he may just have picked it up in Blarney.

He revealed that yesterday wasn’t his first trip to Cork, for as a 22-year-old he toured the county in “a little Austin car”. It must have been quite a squeeze as they don’t call him ‘Big Ian’ for nothing.

“We went to Blarney, but I didn’t kiss the stone. There were so many people kissing it I didn’t like the look of it, so I touched it instead,” said the north’s First Minister.