Ian Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland

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Table of Contents

Ian Paisley’s Background
Formation of the Church
Paisley’s Life in 1960
Paisley’s Activities in 1970-1990
Paisley’s Life After 1990
The Paisleyism Phenomenon
The Most Influential Leader
Causes of Political Disruption
Paisleyism and Political Disruption
Bibliography

Ian Paisley’s Background

Ian Paisley was born in 1926 in Armagh, County Armagh, the son of a Baptist priest. He is a religious and political leader in Northern Ireland. Significantly, Paisley was consecrated by his father in 1946. He attended Barry School of Evangelism and Reformed Presbyterian Theological Hall (Hennessey 231). In 1951 he founded the Free Presbyterian Church Organization, independent of official Presbyterianism. Ian Paisley also holds Calvinist views, is a religious fanatic, opposes the Catholic faith, and is an active fighter against ecumenism.

Formation of the Church

It is significant to mention that the followers supported Paisley’s religious views. From 1961 to 1991, membership in his churches increased ten times. Although, the 1991 population census demonstrated that less than 1 percent of the population of Northern Ireland supported these views. Paisley’s specialty was that he could combine biblical knowledge and stories for political purposes (Hennessey 254). This made Ian Paisley more popular, especially when Protestants did not have much certainty about their constitutional identity and their own views. Therefore, Paisley’s ideological mission was to combine militant anti-Catholicism with militant Unionism.

Paisley’s Life in 1960

In addition, Paisley’s religious views also contributed to the fact that he could spread his own political opinions. Therefore, from the 1960s, Paisley attempted to become a leader of extreme Protestant thought in Northern Ireland, organizing street protests and rallies. Followers of the church and the political and religious figure himself supported him. In general, this activity led to frequent clashes with the authorities and a short prison term for unlawful assembly in 1966 (Greer 187). That year, he founded the Committee for the Defence of the Ulster Constitution and the Ulster Protestant Volunteers, which served as paramilitary extensions of his churches. He was also a member of English Northern Ireland and European Parliaments.

Paisley’s Activities in 1970-1990

In the subsequent time, Ian Paisley’s political career gradually developed. In 1970, Paisley was elected to the parliaments of Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Moreover, in 1971, to expand his electoral base, he led a division in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). Accordingly, Paisley co-founded the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). During the 1970s and 1980s, he attempted to build the DUP into the largest unionist party, but, except for one local council election in 1981, it always finished second, behind the UUP (Greer 190). However, the electorate’s commitment to Ian Paisley has never been in doubt. Because in the elections to the European Parliament in 1999, he received more votes than any other candidate in Northern Ireland. It was only in the 1990s that his popularity as a politician and religious figure began to decline.

Paisley’s Life After 1990

Ian Richard Kyle Paisley is a loyal Northern Irish politician and Protestant religious head who was the leader of the Democratic Union Party from 1971 to 2008. He was also prime minister of Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2008. He succeeded David Trimble as First Minister of Northern Ireland in 20007. More than that, Paisley became Minister for Protestantism in 1946 and stayed one for the remainder of his life. In 1951 he co-founded the Presbyterian Orthodox Church of Ulster and was its head until 2008 (Deutsch 286). Paisley was famous for his fiery sermons, frequent preaching, and protests Roman Catholicism, ecumenism, and homosexuality.

The Paisleyism Phenomenon

It is significant to observe that Paisleyism originated as a purely religious phenomenon. Thus, Paisleyism emerged as a reaction of Protestants to events in Ulster and the world. This is because, in the early 1960s, the Vatican changed the views it had held all along. That is, it concerned the views and attitudes towards other Christian denominations and the secular world (Farrell 15). Such serious changes indicated that it caused the creation of new claims to Catholicism. Accordingly, in the North, it was not perceived by many Protestants supported by Paisley. Thus, anti-pope views were spreading. As a result, the state’s response to the unwillingness of the people to follow the Catholic Church was to exclude it from such areas as housing, business, and higher education. However, the church still had a significant role in the political system.

Nevertheless, Paisleyism until 1968 was an anti-ecumenical movement that also included certain political demands. However, Paisley and his supporters did not understand the political factors that influenced the changes in the North. The movement became especially significant in 1964, when the election campaign was underway, and the followers of Jan Paisley could conduct a march and remove the flag from the headquarters of the Republican Party. In this way, it influenced the government’s decision to start suppressing the riots in the Falls Road area (Farrell 30). Consequently, the followers of Paisleyism received a new incentive to fight and spread their views.

The Most Influential Leader

It is significant to stress that Paisley remains the most famous leader of the Protestant reaction. The fact that the followers of Protestant forces were constantly growing and motivated to fight, was due to the calls of Ian Paisley. Although, Paisley personally did not control all the people, especially in rural areas in the west, because he did not have enough political power. Nevertheless, his influence cannot be underestimated (Farrell 33). Therefore, the Unionist right wing considers him as a political figure that negatively affects their ambitions. Moreover, other political forces also tried to gain the influence and power that Paisley had over people.

Causes of Political Disruption

Northern Ireland experienced significant socio-economic and political difficulties as part of Great Britain. However, the British authorities did all they could to maintain its constitutional status unchanged. Obviously, as is customary in big politics, they proceeded based on their benefits, and the financial factor played an important role. In the post-war period, Northern Ireland redirected to itself the resources outflow from the budget of Great Britain in the amount of about 240 million pounds sterling per year.

Ethnic peculiarities should not be ignored; they manifest themselves in the Irish desire for independence from the British in the linguistic, social, labor, and political spheres. Instead, it can be attributed to a greater extent to the psychological peculiarities of the population. All these reasons made the Irish feel disadvantaged among the English. Psychological causes can also be attributed to the hostility between Catholics and Protestants, which has long existed in the region. Many generations have been brought up in hostility between the two faiths.

It is essential to mention that there was a reluctance in both communities to enter into mixed marriages. It reinforced the segregation of young people, both in education and in other social affairs, and was one of the reasons for the persistence of separate cultural traditions in Northern Ireland. In this way, the history of coexistence between Britain and Ireland goes back centuries. Still, there has not been a synthesis of the cultures of the local population and the Anglo-Saxons. Cultural divisions between Catholics and Protestants provoked a crisis exacerbated by their unequal social positions (Deutsch 286). The increase in animosity and resentment between denominations was latent, but after World War II, it escalated, provoked partly by economic factors.

Paisleyism and Political Disruption

The Protestant community responded to the changes, which ultimately led to the collapse of the Northern Irish state and London’s introduction of direct rule. The new unionists were confronted by traditionally minded Protestants who opposed the modernization policy and reformed for a return to the original values of unionism. They grouped around new structures, political and religious, which, as it seemed to them, could return the lost point of support and restore balance in the lost world. Since the constitutional, parliamentary policy did not justify itself, especially after the dissolution of Stormont, armed organizations emerged, and extremist activity increased.

It is important to note that the fact that Ian Paisley was a loyalist political leader, and a Protestant priest affected his ability to influence political change. Accordingly, in the 1960s, Paisley acted as a street preacher who incited crowds. Then, he won the favor of the people and founded the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and was a leader of loyalism. It is also worth noting that Paisley and his followers organized marches and protests that led to many deaths. The first of them was an action against the lowering of the flag in honor of the Pope (Bruce 81). In this way, Paisley’s political and religious tides were turning to provoke social upheaval and incite the people to struggle.

Afterward, Paisley participated in the search for a format for a peace treaty. This was because he influenced society and could represent their interests. His authority was explained by the fact that in the 1950s, he was arrested for inciting sectarianism against Catholics. Already in the 1960s, Paisley led an extensive campaign against the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O’Neill (Farrington 520). The main demands of Paisley and his followers were not to seek an example with the Catholic community. However, Paisley’s followers, under the influence of his authority, also fought with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA). This is because they considered this organization a cover for militant Irish republicanism. Moreover, the marches for civil rights organized by Paisley significantly worsened public order. Hence, the opinion of Paisley and his supporters was considered when searching for a format to resolve the problematic issue and conclude a peace agreement.

Bibliography

Bruce, Steve. Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Deutsch, Richard. “Geoffrey Bell: The Protestants of Ulster.” Etudes Irlandaises 1, no. 1 (1976): 286-288.

Farrell, Michael. Northern Ireland: The Orange State. London: Pluto Press, 1976.

Farrington, Christopher. “Mobilisation, State Crisis and Counter- Mobilisation: Ulster Unionist Politics and The Outbreak of The Toubles.” lrish Political Studies 23, no. 4 (2008): 513-532.

Greer, James. “The Paisleyites: From Protest Movement to Electoral Breakthrough.” The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture 2, no. 2 (2009): 187-205.

Hennessey, Thomas. A History of Northern lreland 1920 – 1996. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1997.

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