Ian Paisley
Overview
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC (born 6 April 1926) is a politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and church minister in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

 (DUP), he and Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

's Martin McGuinness
Martin McGuinness
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. McGuinness was also the Sinn Féin candidate for the Irish presidential election, 2011. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland....

 were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister
First Minister and deputy First Minister
The First Minister and the Deputy First Minister , sometimes abbreviated to FM/DFM, are positions in the Northern Ireland...

 respectively on 8 May 2007.

In addition to co-founding the DUP and leading it from 1971 to 2008, he is a founding member and immediate past Moderator
Moderator of the General Assembly
The Moderator of the General Assembly is the chairperson of a General Assembly, the highest court of a presbyterian or reformed church. Kirk Sessions and Presbyteries may also style the chairperson as moderator....

 of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster
The Free Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian denomination founded by the Rev. Ian Paisley in 1951. Most of its members live in Northern Ireland...

. In 2005, Paisley's political party became the largest unionist
Unionism in Ireland
Unionism in Ireland is an ideology that favours the continuation of some form of political union between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain...

 party in Northern Ireland, displacing his long-term rivals, the Ulster Unionists
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 (UUP), who had dominated unionist politics in Northern Ireland since before the partition of Ireland
Partition of Ireland
The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920...

.

On 4 March 2008 he announced that he would step down as First Minister and leader of the DUP after the US-Northern Ireland Investment Conference
US-Northern Ireland Investment Conference
US-Northern Ireland Investment Conference is an investment conference in Northern Ireland run by Invest Northern Ireland , Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and supported by Northern Bank and BT Group.- About :"The event is fully...

 in May 2008.
Quotations

"I denounce you, Anti-Christ!"

"I refuse you as Christ's enemy and Antichrist with all your false doctrine."

Both addressed at Pope John Paul II on a visit to the European Parliament|European Parliament October 1988

"No Surrender"

No specific attribution but well known & oft repeated statement

 
x
OK