Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a Unionist politician and Protestant religious leader from Northern Ireland.He became a Protestant evangelical minister in 1946 and would remain one for the rest of his life. In 1951 he co-founded the fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church and was its leader until 2008. Paisley became known for his fiery speeches and regularly preached and protested against Catholicism, ecumenism and homosexuality. He gained a large group of followers who were referred to as 'Paisleyites'.Paisley became involved in Ulster unionist/loyalist politics in the late 1950s. In the mid-late 1960s he led and instigated loyalist opposition to the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. This led to the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s; a conflict that would engulf Northern Ireland for the next thirty years. In 1970 he became Member of Parliament for North Antrim and the following year he founded the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which he would lead for almost forty years. In 1979 he became a Member of the European Parliament.Throughout the Troubles, Paisley was seen as a firebrand and the face of hardline unionism. He opposed all attempts to resolve the conflict through power-sharing between unionists and Irish nationalists/republicans, and all attempts to involve the Republic of Ireland in Northern affairs. His efforts helped bring down the Sunningdale Agreement of 1974 and the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. His attempts to create a paramilitary movement culminated in Ulster Resistance. Paisley and his party also opposed the Northern Ireland peace process and Good Friday Agreement of 1998.In 2005, Paisley's DUP became the largest unionist party in Northern Ireland, displacing the Ulster Unionists (UUP), who had dominated unionist politics since the 1920s. In 2007, following the St Andrews Agreement, the DUP finally agreed to share power with republican party Sinn Féin. Paisley and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness became First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively in May 2007. He stepped down as First Minister and DUP leader in mid-2008, and left politics in 2011. Paisley was made a life peer in 2010 as Baron Bannside.
He co-founded the Democratic Unionist Party in 1971.
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He is the founder of the fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster (1951).
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On the 8th of May 2007, he became First Minister of Northern Ireland.
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Jailed in March 1969 for organising an illegal counter-demonstration against a civil rights march in Armagh. He was released during a general amnesty for people convicted of political offences.
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Is a privy councillor and leader of the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Thus his title is The Revd and Rt Hon. Dr. Ian Richard Kyle Paisley MP MLA.
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Paisley's use of the title 'Dr.' derives from an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree awarded by Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.
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Has a son who is also called Ian (Ian Paisley Jr.), who is also a member of the Democratic Unionist Party.
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Attended Ballymena Model School and South Wales Bible College.
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Christianity: A History
2009
TV Series documentary
Himself
Sunday AM
2008
TV Series
Himself
Caiga quien caiga
2007
TV Series
Himself
HELP at Home Live
2006
TV Series
Himself
A House Divided
2003
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Spotlight
2001
TV Series
Himself
Witness
1998
TV Series documentary
Himself
Newsnight
1995
TV Series
Himself
Walden
1994
TV Series
Himself
Timewatch
1993
TV Series documentary
Himself
Election 92
1992
TV Movie
Himself - Leader, Democratic Unionist Party (as Rev Ian Paisley)
Going Logo
1992
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Panorama
1991
TV Series documentary
Himself
TV Eye
1986
TV Series
Himself
Weekend World
1980-1985
TV Series
Himself
A Week in Politics
1985
TV Series
Himself
This Week
1967-1978
TV Series
Himself
Election 74
1974/I
TV Movie
Himself - Democratic Unionist (as Rev. Ian Paisley)
A Sense of Loss
1972
Documentary
Himself
World in Action
1971
TV Series documentary
Himself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Paisley: A Life
2014
TV Movie
Himself
Newsnight
2014
TV Series
Himself
Mo
2010
TV Movie
Himself (uncredited)
The Blair Years
2007
TV Series documentary
Himself
Give My Head Peace
2004
TV Series
Himself
Labour's Last Premier: A Film Portrait of James Callaghan