Former Democratic Unionist Party leader Dr Ian Paisley Has Died, his wife Eileen says

Former Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley, has died aged 88.

In a statement, Baroness Eileen Paisley said her husband died on Friday morning.

Mr Paisley moved from a political “never man” to Northern Ireland’s first minister.

He ended up leading a power-sharing executive at Stormont – although he had supported the strike to bring one down 30 years earlier.

In her statement, Baroness Paisley said: “Although ours is the grand hope of reunion, naturally as a family, we are heartbroken,” she said.

“We loved him and he adored us and our earthly lives are forever changed.”

Baroness Paisley said that his funeral would be private.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Mr Paisley was “one of the most forceful and instantly recognisable characters in British politics for nearly half a century”.

He said he was a controversial politician but his contribution in his later years to stability in Northern Ireland was “huge”.

“In particular, his decision to take his party into government with Sinn Féin in 2007 required great courage and leadership, for which everyone in these islands should be grateful,” Mr Cameron said.

“I saw him most in the House of Commons where his great oratory stood out. He had a deserved reputation as one of the most hard working and effective MPs.

“Ian Paisley will be remembered by many as the ‘Big Man’ of Northern Ireland politics. He will be greatly missed.”

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin, who was his deputy first minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, said he had learned of the death with deep regret and sadness.

“Over a number of decades we were political opponents and held very different views on many, many issues but the one thing we were absolutely united on was the principle that our people were better able to govern themselves than any British government,” he said.

“I want to pay tribute to and comment on the work he did in the latter days of his political life in building agreement and leading unionism into a new accommodation with republicans and nationalists.

“In the brief period that we worked together in the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister, I developed a close working relationship with him which developed into a friendship, which despite our many differences lasted beyond his term in office.”

First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson said that during the height of the Troubles, the “sure and certain ring” of Ian Paisley’s voice had a “special resonance” with the people of Northern Ireland.

“I don’t think that there’s anyone who has had more influence in Northern Ireland over the years,” Mr Robinson said.

“Even those who thought the least of his politics thought the most of him as a person.”

He said those who knew Ian Paisley knew his priority was his faith – above all else in life.

“In terms of Ian Paisley’s political contribution, I think there are many people who look at his early days in the context of the more stable and peaceful society that we have today.

Loved and loathed, admired and feared, the life of the man known simply as “Big Ian” is the story of Northern Ireland’s transition from violence to peace.

Some will remember him for a single word – “Never!” – rarely spoken, usually bellowed.

He was, for years, the symbol of unionist defiance and, occasionally, menace.

Others will reflect, instead, on what was to become a routine but nonetheless extraordinary sight.

The sight of him sharing a smile and a laugh with the man who had been his bitter enemy – Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness.

In Stormont – the power-sharing executive both had tried to block and then destroy – they became known as the “chuckle brothers”.

“The Ian Paisley of those days was an Ian Paisley that was keeping together a unionist community that felt it was under fire, that it had no friends to help it constitutionally, that its representatives were being picked off, there was genocide along the border.

“In those circumstances, the sure and certain ring of Ian Paisley’s voice and his message, I think, had a special resonance with the people of Northern Ireland and that can be seen by the rise in support that he got over the years.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said Mr Paisley was “a man of deep convictions”.

“The convictions never changed. But his appreciation of the possibilities of peace, gradually and with much soul searching, did. He began as the militant. He ended as the peacemaker,” he said.

“Over time I got to know him well. He could be an uncompromising even intransigent opponent. But he was also someone who loved Northern Ireland and its people.

Former Irish prime minster Bertie Ahern described Ian Paisley as “a big man with a big heart”.

BBC.