The good and the bad sides of Ian Paisley

While out walking at lunchtime last Friday I heard the news of the death or Ian Paisley.

I listened intensively to the RTÉ radio and I thought of how when writing about the death of famous politicians it said that “Every one of our leaders was a giant among men.”

I was born in 1963 and have a great memory. Ian Paisley was a very dangerous individual who was responsible for the death of many dozens of people or even hundreds, not by the deed itself but by his vitriolic demagoguery, which as a young boy growing up in the North I had to listen to. His words and actions led to the imprisonment of many hundreds of young Protestants who were swayed by his words and actions.