18 September 2014, The Tablet

Never say never

by Chris Ryder

 
When a towering player in the tragedy afflicting Northern Ireland died last week, he was mourned more by former enemies than by one-time supporters. A seasoned observer of the conflict says this is a legacy of one of the most remarkable political U-turns of recent times One of the most enduring mysteries of the modern Northern Ireland troubles has been establishing precisely why Lord Bannside, or the Revd Ian Paisley as he was better known, decided in 2007 to share political power with those whom he had so destructively opposed for some 50 years.Paisley executed a momentous U-turn in the twilight of a long life expounding uncompromising and overlapping political and religious doctrine through the Free Presbyterian Church and the Democratic Unionist Party, both of which he founded. Dr No
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