bertiebert said:
it is a shame that someone who expresses his faith so veermently should have so little compassion/ respect for other peoples points of view
there is nothing more to be said
Really? Ian Paisley is respected by his constituents, no matter what their religious or political backgrounds, because of how hard he works for everyone.
"[...]he attracts a large number of catholic votes in his Westminster constituency (famously once attracting all the votes from an entirely catholic off-shore island that is part of his consituency), where he has a reputation as a hardworking MP who will help or defend anyone whatever his or her religious beliefs. Though fiercely anti the Republic of Ireland, he has religious followers there and as a religious leader with southern followers has meet the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern in Irish Government Buildings in Dublin. From the 1960s, one of his main rivals was civil rights leader and second leader of the nationalist SDLP, John Hume. Though their parties are so often at loggerheads, Hume and Paisley are regarded as an excellent team working jointly on behalf of Northern Ireland in the European Parliament and on occasion in the House of Commons. Indeed the complexity of their relationship was demonstrated when it was discovered that Hume had visited Paisley's home to dine with Ian and his wife Eileen on Boxing Dayone year in the 1990s. When Hume resigned the leadership of the SDLP, Paisley gave very warm praise of "John" and very accurate estimation of how difficult the SDLP would find it to fill the void left by the departing leader. (Some suggested that the comments by Paisley were given because he thought he was just chatting to journalists and that the TV cameras weren't on. The sight of a warm, witty quiet Paisley at that moment contrasted with the usual image of the forceful, loud agressive Paisley Northern Irish people on all sides were used to seeing!) In one particular irony, having spent most of his career, as he himself joking admitted once, saying 'No', Paisley assumed the chairmanship of the Agriculture committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly created by the Belfast Agreement, where he was universally praised (even by Sinn Féin members) as an effective, co-ordinating chairperson who treated all committee members with respect and had a particularly good working relationship with the Minister for Agriculture, the SDLP's Brid Rogers.
Now in his mid 70s, the Rev. Dr. Ian Paisley, MLA, MP, MEP is in physically poor health, having aged noticeably, and has been gradually lowering his political profile. Instead he had been devoting much of his time to working with his church on the 'missions' in Africa, where he draws large crowds of converts. Paisley has been reported to be a longterm sufferer from depression, which has also removed him from the public arena on occasions. His son, Kyle, is expected to take over as Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church. His deputy leader of the DUP, Peter Robinson has served as a Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive, where he has earned a large reputation, and is seen as a possible First Minister of Northern Ireland in the next Northern Executive, should the DUP win more seats than the UUP in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections, due on 29 May 2003
[...] daughter Rhonda, who served as a member of Belfast City Council but has since left politics. (She once presented a TV chat show on the Republic's Radio Telifis Eireann, Saturday Live where one of her guests was her father Ian, who charmed TV viewers with his personability and good humour, in utter contrast to the normal 'Ian Paisley' seen on news bulletins.)"
(Courtesy Brainy Encyclopedia)
Certainly the man is intolerant of the Roman Catholic Church, and similarly of Roman Catholic institutions such as the Republic of Ireland and Sinn Féin/IRA. But intolerant of Catholics themselves? I'm not so sure.