was watching the tributes being paid by our politicians last night. is there anything that can be learned from that. deffo a scarey character when i was growing up Ireland looks a much better place to be these days.
Thank god for that. The world is just a much better place without some people. If you want a good laugh, read Jon Ronson's experience with Paisley in Africa. It's hilarious. The man was a bully and extremely weird.
Weird definitely, but it is stretching it a bit to call Ronson a bully. Oh ... You were talking about Paisley ;-)
Ian Paisley was a deranged egomaniac who did a great deal of harm, and also by chance some good. As a public speaker he was a ranting demagogue, intoxicated with the exuberance of his own verbosity*. If the Hell which he foolishly believed in existed, he would be there now. * as Gladstone said of Disraeli.
as a child I remember being shocked to learn that Ian Paisley who ranted his way through the 70's was a vicar.
Oddly enough, many of the insulting things which Ian Paisley used to say about the way the Republic of Ireland was dominated by the Roman Catholic Church, and the abuses perpetrated by the church there, later turned out to be true. Unfortunately Northern Ireland and Protestant churches were just as bad, which he omitted to mention.
I always thought the prisons over here were full of men stirred up by his ranting's to carry out horrendous crimes in the name of religion....in my view he is as guilty as the person he created. and these type of people exist still on both sides. and this is after several bud and pain relief......
As a kid, I always wondered why the IRA didn't bump him off, but then it became apparent that he was the most valuable source of propaganda for them.
Paisley's speciality was making inflammatory speeches winding people up, encouraging them to take part in violent demonstrations and take up the gun and the bomb. Then when the hotheads actually committed violent acts, as he had exhorted them to, he stepped back and hung them out to dry. He let other people do his dirty work, and many went to prison for it, whilst always claiming to keep his own hands clean. His concept of becoming a priest was not to join a religion, but to found his own sect with himself as the permanent head of it. His concept of politics was not to join a party, but to found his own party with himself as the permanent leader of it. And he always opposed a devolved administration for Northern Ireland, until he was in a position to become the head of it himself. Paisley must be by far the most egotistical person in UK public life over the past half-century.
I think you will find that he set down with terrorists, which are now in Government and agreed to disagree and the basis that this was what the people wanted. He went against his principals for Northern Ireland. To be fair, a lot of them put their differences aside. He admitted resolving his differences with those he opposed. He would not at the time accept joint rule with terrorists.
Paisley was getting into bed one night, and his wife said "God your feet are cold" Paisley replied, "Thats all right darling, you may call me Ian when we're in bed"
I'd be prepared to bet that Paisley was a clinical psychopath. I can't remember if Ronson implies this in his book or not, having spent some time with him. Paisley sounds a bit like a rabid Protestant Omar Bakri.
Two nuns were driving down a road when their car runs out of petrol. They look in the boot for a jerry can but all that's in the car is an old chamber pot (potty) One of the nuns walks about a half mile to the nearest petrol station fills the pot and returns to the car. While they are filling the car from the chamber pot, Paisley was driving by. So he stops rolls down his window and says, "I don't agree with your religion Sisters, but I do admire your faith."
