Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9410030071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND LENGTH: Medium
Inside the church, the Rev. Ian Paisley, the aging Presbyterian preacher, mounts the pulpit - just to the right of the British Union Jack.
``This city will not be abandoned to the Antichrist, the pope, or to his minions in the Republic of Ireland,'' Paisley thunders to his Free Presbyterian congregation. He quotes Biblical scripture to compare Northern Ireland's Protestants to the persecuted Jews of the Old Testament. ``We will remain faithful to the Lord, and He shall deliver us.''
And the faithful clamor, ``Amen.''
Perhaps for the first time in more than two decades, real hope abounds for lasting peace in the six-county province known as Northern Ireland, spurred by the Irish Republican Army's month-old cease-fire.
Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams is on a high-profile publicity tour of the United States, and talks with British leaders are on track for later this year. Could it be that the 25 years of ``The Troubles'' in Northern Ireland are finished as well?
In a word, no. For one reason, Paisley.
For more than four decades, he has been the Unionist Protestant bulldog, their Gerry Adams. They see him as the man who can save them from being absorbed into the neighboring and overwhelmingly Catholic Republic of Ireland, from which they were partitioned in 1920.
``Simply put, Ian Paisley is the biggest obstacle to peace in Northern Ireland,'' says Ed Moloney, one of his biographers. It is a commonly held view among the dozens of politicians, authors, priests, political activists, butchers and homemakers interviewed for this article.
He is arrogant, bigoted, bombastic, crass, intolerant, self-righteous and stunningly popular, those people say. In the recent European Parliament elections, he was re-elected with 161,000 votes, the most cast for any candidate in Europe, and he's been a member of the British Parliament since 1970.
``Paisley is too loud, he's too fundamentalist, he looks bad on the `telly,''' says Doreen Tarr, an unemployed mother of four who lives in the Protestant slum of Ballysillin. ``But one thing you can count on - ol' Ian will never sell us out.''
``He'll never sell us out'' - that is the root of Ian Paisley's popularity. His own church is to the right of the mainstream, and his Democratic Unionist Party draws only about 13 percent of the vote in local elections.
But when push comes to shove, most Ulster Protestants back Paisley.
History casts a murderous shadow over this rain-soaked island, and understanding why they would support Paisley requires understanding of who Ulster Protestants are, and why they are so frightened of Catholics.
Social and economic chasms culminated in the Irish war for independence in 1920. The British government gave up the southern part of the island, but held on to six counties in Northern Ireland, or Ulster, where Scottish Protestants made up about 60 percent of the population.
Protestants retained their proud sense of superiority to Catholics and saw it as their right to discriminate against Catholics in jobs, housing and religious observances.
This resulted in the current round of troubles, which began when Paisley supporters attacked Catholics marching for equal rights in 1969. The Irish Republican Army soon launched its terror campaign of bombing and shooting. Protestant loyalist paramilitaries followed suit, and now kill as frequently as the IRA. At least 3,170 people have been killed, and more than 30,000 wounded in the past 25 years.
Today, Protestants make up 57 percent of the Ulster population of 1.57 million. Catholics make up 43 percent and are growing.
In 1985, Margaret Thatcher signed an agreement with Dublin that said the British government would consult Ireland about future matters affecting Ulster.
This seemed an outrageous betrayal to Ulster Protestants.
Worse, British Prime Minister John Major now seems ready to talk with their arch-enemy, Gerry Adams, whom they regard as an IRA terrorist. At the same time, Major kicks their own Ian Paisley out of Downing Street for saying he didn't trust Major's promise that no secret deal had been struck with the IRA or its political wing, Sinn Fein.
But in Protestant Ulster, nobody believes Major. In their view, Paisley was the only Ulster politician with the guts to confront Major, and was treated shamefully for it.
by CNB