Dr. Rev. Ian Paisley: MLA, MP, leader of the DUP, founder of the Free Presbyterian Church and, come May, ex-MEP. Today the seventy-seven year old announced that he will not seek re-election to the Strasbourg parliament. It is the first indication that he has accepted he can’t go on forever. For the rest of us, this fact has been obvious for some time. The great frame slumps ever forward and the once booming voice is now reedy and weak. Where once he relished confrontation now he avoids it, leaving younger party colleagues to do the shouting for him. There are persistent rumours (hotly denied) that he is in poor health.

Paisley first thrust himself on the public scene in 1965 as an outspoken critic of then Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O’Neill’s policy of détente with the Republic. The context may have changed but the rhetoric has been constant – Ulster is in danger and only Paisley can save it. It‘s a message which has won the support of half of the unionist electorate. To his supporters he is not just another politician but rather something approaching a deity. To other unionists Paisley is either a fascist, a clown or an embarrassment. To nationalists he is a hateful bigot.

When he retires, his legacy will be entirely negative. It was fear of Paisley which held back moderate unionists from making a deal with nationalists. O’Neill, Faulkner, Trimble – all looked over their shoulder, always scared that their voters would believe Paisley’s “sell-out” jibes.

Paisley must also take a measure of responsibility for loyalist violence during the Troubles. It was his apocalyptic rhetoric which “inspired” young men to commit horrific crimes in the name of Ulster. He stoked the flames of loyalist anger but never accepted any blame when people got burnt.

The IRA never tried to kill Paisley. Why would they? He was their number one propaganda asset. Paisley will be remembered as the man who dragged the name of Irish Protestants through the mud. A people who have produced world-class musicians, sports stars, poets and writers are best known for the rantings of a loud-mouthed bigot.