Profiling 'The Troubles': Ian Paisley

Ian Paisley was undoubtedly one of the most powerful and influential individuals during ‘The Troubles’. He was a pertinently staunch Unionist, who’s uncompromising and firebrand politics cemented himself as the forefront of Unionism and would stark up a harsh resistance to Irish Republicanism. His rallying cry of ‘Ulster Says No’ signified his position at maintaining Northern Ireland’s position in the United Kingdom and his journey from radical preacher to First Minister of the new Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007 demonstrates the longevity of Paisley’s political career.

Paisley was born in Armagh City, in 1926 into a Baptist family who were steeped in the tradition of Protestant Unionism. He would gain notoriety from an early age as a preacher, combining the word of God to spread his ultimate belief of the Protestant supremacy and garnered a reputation as a hardliner Loyalist. He first set up his own church – The Free Presbyterian Church, in the village of Crossgar in County Down, in 1951. It would be here Paisley would harness his talent for public speaking and his encyclopaedic knowledge of the Bible along with his command of politics, meant he was able to speak to the Protestant people of his congregation in a time of political uncertainty and fearful for their position among Britain.

Paisley’s entrance into the Northern Irish political sphere would come in the shape of organising street rallies and protests as a show of strength of the Protestant people, exercising extreme loyalist opinions which would alert the authorities to crackdown on Paisley on several occasions. He would be convicted for several public order offences for inciting violence against the Catholic homes and Businesses and would later spend a short time in prison for unlawful assemble.

In 1966, Paisley would found the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee. This would be a direct affiliate of the paramilitary Ulster Protestant Volunteers, and they would be the perpetrators of one of the first acts the preceded ‘The Troubles’. In 2019, as part of a seven-part documentary, BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight on The Troubles: A Secret History, uncovered that Paisley had been involved in organising Silent Valley Reservoir in Kilkeel, County Down to be blown up. This was to oust the moderate Unionist Government, as a retaliation for conceding to the Catholic community too much. The plot was made to look like it was executed by the IRA, but documents that came to fruition 50 years after they were written concluded that Paisley had financed the bombing that was carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force. This highlighted Paisley’s increasing influential in Ulster and his intentions to stir up violence in the region.

Northern Ireland Prime Minister at the time, Terence O’Neill, publicly dismissed Paisley’s pedigree in Northern Irish politics but documents recently discovered in the Public Records Office tell a much different story. O’Neill and his Ulster Unionist Party were in surveillance of Paisley’s activities as early as 1966. His rallies were infiltrated with RUC officers and recorded with the intention of prosecuting him for ‘inciting opposition to the Northern Ireland Government’.

A Police Intelligence Report titled ‘The Paisleyite Movement’ details Paisley had close ties to the banned Ulster Volunteer Force and colluded in the years before ‘The Troubles’ kicked off in 1969. A claim which Paisley strenuously denied his whole political career.

In 1971, Paisley would establish the Democratic Unionist Party that would change the face of politics in the province forever, and throughout the next two decades Paisley did his utmost to assert the DUP as the leading party for Ulster Unionism but would still play second fiddle to the Ulster Unionist Party until after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

Through the Troubles, Paisley's influence grew as he took advantage of the anxieties and worries held by the Protestant community. His repeating rallying cry “Ulster Says No" came to represent his unwavering resistance to any accommodation with Irish republicanism and his will to keep Northern Ireland a part of the United Kingdom.

Paisley was well known for his absolute no nonsense approach towards the Republican movement and continuously leaned away from peace talks and was sidelined as the leading voice of Unionism as ‘The Troubles’ started to draw to a close in the 1990’s. He was absent from the peace talks that would lead to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 but following a resurgence of his political career Ian Paisley would do the unthinkable and deal in politics with a man he once considered a bitter enemy.

That man would be Sinn Fein politician and former leader of the IRA, Martin McGuinness. As violence faded, and Northern Ireland tried to move on from 30 years of war. A power sharing agreement in Stormont brought two bitter enemies to forge an unlikely political friendship, that would see Sein Finn and the DUP, form a power sharing agreement as Paisley became the First Minister of Northern Ireland. Together they formed a partnership that would lead Northern Ireland, into a modern era.

In 1997, Paisley commented: “Talk about dancing at Christmas on the graves of Ulster dead, and to be given the facility so to dance by the British prime minister... Here we saw the godfathers of those who planned the bombing of Downing Street, standing outside there and piously pretending they were engaged in a search for peace". In reference to McGuiness and Gerry Adams meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street for talks. This highlights the peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland that took place to allow two opposing individuals to run a country together.

In reflecting on Ian Paisley's legacy, it is impossible to ignore the complexities and contradictions that defined his political career. While he was revered by many as a stalwart defender of Protestant unionism and a tireless advocate for the preservation of Northern Ireland's place within the United Kingdom, he was also reviled by others for his inflammatory rhetoric and stance on key issues but nonetheless had a legacy that still reverberates in Northern Ireland today.