Ian Paisley's voice has boomed out in Northern Ireland for 30 years.
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -- Revered by followers as a stern defender of a way of life, loathed by opponents as a rabble-rousing bigot, Northern Ireland's preacher-politician Ian Paisley has always provoked strong emotions.
Now, more than three decades after barging onto the political landscape, Paisley, 77, is back at centre stage as his hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) threatens to eclipse the more moderate Ulster Unionists of arch-rival David Trimble.
Paisley refused to sit in talks involving the Irish Republican Army's political ally Sinn Fein which led to the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, and has consistently opposed a deal he sees as a sell-out of Protestants' British heritage.
Lambasting Trimble for backing the plan, Paisley called the Good Friday accord: "The greatest betrayal ever foisted by a unionist leader on the unionist people."
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Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley | 3/18/2009
