First Minister Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley will step down as Northern Ireland First Minister following a conference in Belfast on Thursday.
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The son of a Baptist minister, Ian Paisley was born in Armagh in 1926.
Throughout his life he was a fierce critic of the Catholic Church and he founded the Free Presbyterian Church in 1951.
His defence of Northern Ireland's place within the UK, encapsulated in the slogan 'No Surrender', and his hostility toward the Catholic Church made him a hero to many Protestants but a hate figure to many Catholics.
Ian Paisley was first elected to Westminster 1970 and to the European parliament in 1979. He was initially viewed as a spent force following his opposition to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, however his uncompromising stance later won him support from disillusioned Protestants.
Rev Paisley became Northern Ireland First Minister in May 2007 after a powersharing deal with Sinn Féin.
Regarded for much of his career as a hardliner and a stern critic of Irish republicanism, he will also be remembered for steering his party from the political margins to the centre of politics in Northern Ireland.
