Paisley — a destructive demagogue who prolonged the North’s agony

IT WAS difficult to stomach some of the more generous tributes paid to Ian Paisley early last week after he announced his impending retirement, but the balance had certainly been restored by last weekend.

The Taoiseach’s claim that Paisley was a “giant” of Irish history who had “sincerely done what he believed was right“ was widely rubbished in most newspapers on Sunday. In the Sunday Independent, Eilís O’Hanlon highlighted the ultimate irony- that “for almost his entire life, Paisley was a vile caricature of a man of God whose contribution to life in Northern Ireland was overwhelmingly negative”.

Eoghan Harris, meanwhile, drew attention to the fact that Paisley spent his career destroying any leader of unionism who was prepared to contemplate compromise and change and “delayed peace by possibly 20 years”.