Reaction to Paisley’s death would have been different ten years ago
In 2004, with the fledgling devolved institutions suspended following a spy scandal, he remained doggedly opposed to power-sharing with nationalists.
It later transpired he had suffered serious illness that year, admitting afterwards he had "walked in death's shadow".
What prompted his Damascene conversion two years later remains the source of much speculation and debate, but it is widely acknowledged that his transformation from to firebrand preacher to peacemaker marked a watershed in Northern Ireland politics.
The man who many believed had fanned the flames of the Troubles 35 years earlier had assumed the status of a statesman and the demeanour to match.
The momentum of those days as first minister, when the former hardliner could regularly be seen sharing a joke with ex-IRA commander Martin McGuinness, ultimately could not be maintained.
The unceremonious manner in which Paisley was ousted from the DUP leadership was laid bare earlier this year in a BBC documentary.
His successor Peter Robinson was yesterday prominent in paying tribute to the party founder.
The acrimony between the two was set aside as Stormont's first minister remembered the man who had shaped his ideology.
"A long and glorious period of Ulster history has now closed and already the province seems a little less colourful," Mr Robinson said.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, so long a hate figure for unionists, did not offer an assessment of Mr Paisley's contribution to Irish politics, saying that was for another day.
However, he also said he had been saddened by the death of the north's former first minister.
And while for decades the Ballymena man was synonymous with sectarianism, another illustration of the respect he latterly earned came from comments by the Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor.
In the words of SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell, Ian Paisley was a "man of great contradictions".
Personable, funny and renowned as a hard-working parliamentarian, his private manner belied the bluster and boisterousness that characterised his speeches.
Whatever history's verdict on the man who travelled from right outside the political establishment to the centre of power-sharing, politics in Northern Ireland will never be the same again.
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