News from the New Party

Paisley quits

The imminent departure of Dr Ian Paisley from the post of First Minister of Northern Ireland and the leadership of the Democratic Unionist Party does indeed bring to an end a remarkable political career.

For forty years the most implacable and vocal opponent of power-sharing in Northern Ireland, Ian Paisley finally said "yes" after a lifetime of saying "no".  Since entering government with Sinn Fein he has served as First Minister with his former arch-enemy Martin McGuiness as his deputy.

Tributes to Dr Paisley have been generous, but it is hard to overlook the fact that the man who has done most for forty years to undermine the efforts of others to bring peace to Northern Ireland (at least among the Unionist community) has been Ian Paisley himself.  There is a "Nixon in China" element to Paisley's big U-turn.  Just as only Nixon could go to China, only Paisley could broker a deal with Sinn Fein - not least because anyone else who tried to do so was brought down by Paisley himself.  And much of what he did in the process was ugly.

Oliver Kamm cites an incident involving his uncle Martin Bell, courtesy of Irish blogger Slugger O'Toole:

'This is a true story about Ian Paisley and the media: I was there. In Armagh in late November 1968, Paisley and a counter-demonstration stopped a civil rights march getting in to the centre of Armagh from the Moy Road where it formed up. The march broke up quietly at the police lines below the Shambles, and then Paisley held a Prayer Rally in Market Square. There were a couple of thousand supporters and Martin Bell was there with a camera crew. Paisley said: "There is a man in this square today who is no friend of the Protestant and Loyalist people of Ulster. That man is Martin Bell of the BBC, or the PBC as I call it - the Papish Broadcasting Corporation. [Applause] Now I am not suggesting that any man here should offer violence to Martin Bell of the PBC, but [he paused and then slowly pointed] he's standing over there in a sheepskin jacket."
'After Bell had got a few digs, he said: "Now, brethren, let us bow our heads in a silent prayer for deliverance from our foes."'

Kamm is dismissive of Paisley's contribution to the peace process:

It is fatuous for the Northern Ireland Secretary to declare that Paisley "played an absolutely historic role in ending the deadlock and establishing permanent devolved government and deserves enormous credit for the courage and vision he showed". Paisley was merely the unwitting and undeserving beneficiary of political reform wrought by the better and the brighter. It was David Trimble who secured the long-term health and stability of the Union by dispensing with dogma while holding firm on weapons decommissioning.

This is undoubtedly true: David Trimble worked harder and made greater sacrifices to bring peace to Ulster, and saw his Ulster Unionist Party decimated by the DUP for his pains.  And yet Paisley did finally say "yes".  Northern Ireland faces a brighter future now than it has done for many decades - but it is hard to argue that this future has a place for Ian Paisley.