Ian Paisley

Doctor the Reverend Ian Paisley MP is a Northern Irish politician and religious leader.

He is the founder and head of the fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church and the head of the Democratic Unionist Party. He is a creationist, strongly anti-abortion and supports the criminalisation of homosexuality.

Strongly anti-Catholic, his long career has included a number of controversial incidents, including an attempted assault on Pope John XXIII, the incitement of numerous riots and house-burnings, and complicity in the bombing of his own Protestant community to further aggravate the existing sectarian divide.

He and his party have been instrumental in delaying the Northern Ireland Peace Process, and remain committed to its final destruction. However in spite of his opposition, terrorist activities other than Loyalist outrages have now almost entirely ceased in the province and the IRA has largely disarmed. It has been speculated that the main reason that he was not assassinated during the long conflict, was that his extremist views and behaviour actually generated such substantial support for his opponents that his death would have been counter-productive to their cause.

He is a lifelong tea-totaller.