Ahern: North faces challenges after Paisley departure

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that challenges lie ahead for the North's peace process as Ian Paisley prepares to leave the stage.

The Taoiseach struck up an unlikely working relationship with Mr Paisley who has announced he will step down as the North's First Minister and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in May.

The relationship deepened over the last year after a political lifetime intensely opposed to each other’s viewpoint.

Mr Ahern cast aside decades of dissent to praise the often controversial unionist leader for his work in restoring devolution to the North.

“I’m not going to say I didn’t spend most of my political life taking a different point of view (to Mr Paisley), I did,” he said.

“But when it came down to making the Good Friday Agreement work and to having an inclusive executive in Northern Ireland and to have North-South bodies, he made the big moves.”

The Taoiseach said Mr Paisley’s departure would leave behind significant new hurdles.

“We’ve worked hard to get the stability, we’ve worked hard to build a relationship with Dr Paisley,” he said.

“We’ve achieved that, it was not easy, and now the main player in a few months’ time will go off the stage.

“We have to now work to see if that harmonious relationship can continue. Obviously, I hope so but time will decide that.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said Mr Paisley had provided "outstanding leadership'' as First Minister and brought his party to the historic position of power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

He said: “The established peace and continuing prosperity which everyone in Northern Ireland now enjoys undoubtedly owes a significant debt to the leadership of Dr Paisley.

“Whilst the future leadership of the DUP is obviously a matter for his party, we should all recognise the achievements of this very considerable figure in the history and politics of Northern Ireland.”

Former British prime minister Tony Blair praised Mr Paisley's "decisive" contribution.

He said: “Ian Paisley’s contribution to peace, after all the years of division and difference was decisive and determinative.

“In short, in the final analysis, he made it happen. The man famous for saying ’no’ will go down in history for saying ’yes’.

“He did so personally convinced it was right and in reaching that conviction, consigning to the past the feelings he once so trenchantly articulated.”