Paisley's Exit: The Militant Imam Of Northern Ireland Retires

Hate, if you want to hate
If it keeps you safe
If it makes you brave

Pray, if you want to pray
If you like to kneel
If you like to lay
--Soundgarden

What is old news now (one week ago) in N. Ireland is that Ian Paisley, a man I am no fan of, is stepping down as first minister.

John Murphy makes runs down the hard and fast case against the neo-fascist pig Ian Paisley:

History will find few redeeming features in Paisley. All his life he spewed out hate-filled sectarian rant from platform and pulpit -- as a Christian minister, mar dhea! He bears a heavy responsibility for the bloody prolongation of the conflict, and for the misdeeds of loyalists who had the murderous courage of his bigoted convictions. His final rise to power was the outcome of a single-minded personal and dynastic ambition which took no prisoners and which ruthlessly kicked aside the moderates and the compromisers in the unionist communities.

This was the course he relentlessly pursued all the way from the Terence O'Neill days through Sunningdale (1973) and the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985) to the Belfast Agreement (1998), which he denounced as "a partnership with the men of blood".

Well, that's not all he did, unfortnately, as I noted previously:

Paisley not only gave religious justification for violence against Catholics, he incited it. During the height of the civil war movement in Northern Ireland, an event (a precursor to the Bloody Sunday Massacre) involving Paisley came to pass. In 1968, in a Sharpton-esque speech that incited clear and present danger, Paisley convinced 500 Protestants to attack and loot Catholic homes. He justified his actions, explaining that:

"Catholic homes caught fire because they were loaded with petrol bombs; Catholic churches were attacked and burned because they were arsenals and priests handed out sub-machine guns to parishioners; and the massive discrimination in employment and shortage of houses for Catholics were simply because they breed like "rabbits" and multiply like "vermin".

Let's be clear: It's great he and Martin McGuinness decided to join hands and become best friends in order to come to a civilized peace of the brave.

But let's also be clear: Without Paisley, N. Ireland would have reached peace a long time ago, and probably with a far shorter list of the dead. The only man with the power to stop the bleeding was the man who started it in the first place.
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If you have never seen the violence of N. Ireland, here is a quick look back to the early 90's:


Thanks for a lifetime of good works, sir. /sarcasm