Paisley gone to his eternal reward

[passedit]

Just Breaking

[Tubberman]

Seated at the right hand of the Father.

[Keyser soze]

God Rest his soul.

He'll be organising a split as we speak...The Independent Heavan [Hell] of Ulster.

[mouview]

Where do we stand on this now?

[deiseach]

Where do we stand on this now?

[seafoid]

A big man but he leaves his people in a poor enough state, I think. He could have saved a lot of deaths if he had copped on 20 years earlier.


John Hewitt got him well in this great poem

http://virtualmethodist.blogspot.ch/2009/09/coasters.html

The Coasters

You coasted along
To larger houses, gadgets, more machines
To golf and weekend bungalows,
Caravans when the children were small,
the Mediterranean, later, with the wife.


You did not go to Church often,
Weddings were special;
But you kept your name on the books
Against eventualities;
And the parson called, or the curate.


You showed a sense of responsibility,
With subscriptions to worthwhile causes
And service in voluntary organisations;
And, anyhow, this did the business no harm,
No harm at all.
Relations were improving. A good
useful life. You coasted along.


You even had a friend of two of the other sort,
Coasting too: your ways ran parallel.
Their children and yours seldom met, though,
Being at different schools.
You visited each other, decent folk with a sense
Of humour. Introduced, even, to
One of their clergy. And then you smiled
In the looking-glass, admiring, a
Little moved by, your broadmindedness.
Your father would never have known
One of them. Come to think of it,
When you were young, your own home was never
Visited by one of the other sort.

Relations were improving. The annual processions
began to look rather like folk-festivals.

When that noisy preacher started,
he seemed old-fashioned, a survival.
Later you remarked on his vehemence,
a bit on the rough side.
But you said, admit, you said in the club,
'You know, there's something in what he says'.




And you who seldom had time to read a book,
what with reports and the colour-supplements,
denounced censorship.
And you who never had an adventurous thought
were positive that the church of the other sort
vetoes thought.
And you who simply put up with marriage
for the children's sake, deplored
the attitude of the other sort
to divorce.
You coasted along.
And all the time, though you never noticed,
The old lies festered;
the ignorant became more thoroughly infected;
there were gains, of course;
you never saw any go barefoot.

The government permanent, sustained
by the regular plebiscites of loyalty.
You always voted but never
put a sticker on your car;
a card in the window
would not have been seen from the street.
Faces changed on posters, names too, often,
but the same families, the same class of people.
A Minister once called you by your first name.
You coasted along
and the sores supperated and spread.

Now the fever is high and raging;
Who would have guessed it, coasting along?
The ignorant-sick thresh about in delirium
And tear at the scabs with dirty finger-nails.
The cloud of infection hangs over the city,
A quick change of wind and it
Might spill over the leafy suburbs.
You coasted along.


Farage is his son.

[Shamrock Shore]

I won't cry into my soup.

[haveaharp]

Where do we stand on this now?

By the counter, holding a pint

[Zip Code]

The news will be a hard watch with everyone on praising this hateful oul **** who caused the deaths of many innocent person with his rhetoric, it's times like this I wish there was a hell so he could burn in it.

[charlieTully]

Hope the cnut burns in hell.

[mikehunt]

He'd better hope God is in a forgiving mood today.

[AZOffaly]

Hard to believe he's gone. He obviously went on a  charm offensive (insomuch as he could) in his latter years, but he was one hateful man with his rhetoric in the really bad times.

Whatever way you view him, he was a huge, huge part of this country's history over the past 40 years or more, and it's certainly feels like the end of something big.

[theskull1]

Would Tony like to tell us if he thinks Paisley will be in heaven when his time comes along with Sean Brady? And if not why not? His congregation and electorate thought he was a great fellow.

[seafoid]

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/

Bear in mind these dead:
I can find no plainer words
John Hewitt, Neither an elegy nor a Manifesto


This section contains information on the deaths that have resulted from the conflict in Ireland between 14 July 1969 and 31 December 2001. The information has been provided by Malcolm Sutton and is an updated and revised version of the material that was first published in his 1994 book Bear in mind these dead ... An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland 1969-1993.

[RealSpiritof98]

Getting that weird feeling, i hated the man for so many years, but the more i hear about him in recent years really does surprise me. From what i know he definitely had some sort of epiphany the last time he was seriously ill pre the St Andrews agreement and this signaled his mellowing although it hard to argue against the view that he got the smell of power as he got older and took the chance with open arms. However he did what he did and has blood is on his hands and has bred a legion of bigoted unionists that even ended up chucking him out of both his party and church for his relationship with MMcG/republicans

I thought the DUP website would have had some sort of tribute online even at this quick stage, but nothing as yet.