Decision to share power with Sinn Fein 'vindicated'
As 2007 draws to a close, DUP leader Ian Paisley met Political Editor Stephen Dempster in Washington DC last week, to reflect on his momentous year and answer the views of his critics within unionism...
IAN Paisley has declared his decision to share power with Sinn Fein "vindicated".
And he has told those unionists who have accused him of betraying a lifetime of opposition to republicanism, that they would have accused him of worse, if he had not done the deal and allowed an era of "Dublin rule" in Northern Ireland to be ushered in.
As the DUP leader prepared to meet President George W Bush last week, he agreed to take time out of a busy US schedule to respond to his critics on the unionist hardline, who claim he sold out Ulster on March 26, 2007 - when he appeared with Gerry Adams to say power-sharing was on.
From that moment, Mr Paisley was no longer the great boggeyman to republicanism.
Instead he found himself having to keep a lid on mutterings of uncertainty and discontent in his own party, while adjusting to the fact that his new enemy was a hardline unionist rump that once would have followed him to the ends of the earth.
His response, largely, has been to get on with the job of leading the country - ignoring opponents, who were once his friends.
The strategy, it would appear, is to bed down devolved government within the Union; calm the worriers in his party; and ultimately sweep aside Jim Allister and co, as real day-to-day issues pre-occupy people, rather than the constituional battles of the recent past.
So far, it would appear, he is winning the arguments - even if a few pronouncements (Sinn Fein in government "over my dead body" and "mandatory coalition out of the question") had to be brushed under the carpet, along the way.
And it was certainly a reflection of his strong position, that the DUP leader was in a relaxed, warm and welcoming mood, in the lobby of the Willard Hotel in downtown Washington DC, last Thursday, as he reflected on his "yes" to power-sharing with Sinn Fein, which has changed the course of his political lifetime.
News Letter: We are in America, there is a lot of positivity around, on this trip to generate the interest of potential US investors, and you are meeting with President Bush and Senator Clinton to discuss serious opportunities which could create a prosperous future for Northern Ireland. How did we arrive at this point?
Ian Paisley: "Well the major division in our country was always on politics and I am a strong believerand have always preached that if there was going to be a deal done it would be by the people of Northern Ireland. It would not be done by the influence of the British Government or the American authorities.
And until the leaders of the Ulster people did it there could be no peace in Ulster.
"We had people coming in and pushing us around and telling us how to run our lives. We resisted that and while what we have is not perfect for anyone, we stuck by the principles of democracy and we got there in the end. The victory was won"
NL: But there are those, and we hear them in the Letters Pages of the News Letter, for example, who do not believe it was a victory for unionism?
IP: "People can criticise me and my party but we have changed things and we have made sure of republican support for policing, an end to IRA activity and all the time also protecting the interests of the unionist people who voted for us.
"And if ever you needed evidence of that, look at the fellow (MLA Gerry McHugh) who resigned from Sinn Fein just the other day. He was the greatest evangalist for us because he actually confirmed what we have said (that the Executive is running to a unionist agenda and implementing British rule).
"That has been confirmed by my very enemies (Sinn Fein). So we want to leave that aisde now and we want to come down to the very basics of politics, how people live. What is their future? What hopes are there for their children? What state is education in?
"And we want to change things so that our children do not leave Ulster because they are afraid or have no opportunities and we want to create prosperity. And that is not just some dream. We have a proud history in our country. At one time we led the world and led the United Kingdom, in shipbuilding and textiles and I think we need to look back and see how well Ulster did in those days. I want to see that happen again."
NL: Reflecting on the year,whenever you took that hard decision which led to March 26 and the famous appearance with Gerry Adams at Stormont to reveal a deal, how do you feel now?
"I feel extremely vindicated. I think I was vindicated from day one because our opponents at the elections said we would not share power with Sinn fein and we were saying anybody that agrees to our proposition, in respect of government, in respect of law and order, we would have to share power with that party.
And we persisted on our course until people supported law and order and proper democracy.
And Tony Blair didn't do anything, it was the Ulster people and their leaders made the decision."
NL: You have given a speech on this trip, and a point in it which may not have been widely noted at home, was that you spoke candidly about the choice you had to make over power-sharing with Sinn Fein. You admitted that leaving a legacy was part of the decision-making process. You came to a point where you thought about what you would leave behind. You had to weigh up your beliefs, the future of the Union, of the people. How emotional a moment was that?
IP: "It was very emotional because people did not understand it was very hard for me to think of every man, woman and child in Northern Ireland and their futures and their pasts and to think of what I came through and what my party came through.
"And a leader of a party is only a leader if he can carry not a man who cannot carry his party with him. I could have the best ideology but if I cannot sell it I am finished and we had to sell it. I had a lot to think about.
"I knew too what people had been through, at the hands of the IRA, and that they suffered greatly.
"But then so did my own family. Its only by the mercy of God that I have Ian (Junior) here because when he was a child he was attacked and my other son was shot at and we had our house bombed.
"So we came through all that and I want to salute the people of Ulster, people who have made big sacrifices and they have come to me, police officers, and said 'Ian there's a job you have got to do; go and do it'.
"The people of Ulster have stood with us and, while there and there you have voices againts us, they have no sway. And I can say that as a politician reaching the people."
NL: But a lot of those people, former colleagues and friends, feel hurt by seeing you in government with Sinn Fein.
IP: "Well they should think about what the people, the unionist people, wanted and who they have voted for. We are democrats.
"A lot of them (critics) have not been in politics but I have not kept my position in my own constituency without understanding and knowing the people.
"And I believe the people have entrusted me and trust me and I have a responsibilty to do the very best I can for our country. But, I mean, who am I? I will be gone and will be forgotten when I am finished. But the people must live on and Ulster must live on and I want it to live on under the best possible cicrcumstances.
NL: But what changed? Between the summer before last (2006), when you stood up on the Twelfth and said Sinn Fein would not be in government - ''over my dead body" - and the Spring of 2007?
IP: "It was a change in Sinn Fein, who said yes, and the fact that after the St Andrews Agreement it was finally clear there could only be government if they signed up to the police. Now that may have been controversial but it was clear and we made it clear, and you know very well because you reported it, that we said if they did that and we believed it, we would have to share power with them.
"We set them tests to become democrats and I could not then stand up and say 'no I cannot do it'. I had to keep my promise. But to say that I changed! I did not change, it was Sinn Fein changed.
"And to be fair to them they have shown a real willingness to do work for Northern Ireland and to support law and order and I believe it. And so I have to get on with working in a coalition and making Ulster stronger and giving us hope for all our children.
"I might not like it myself, and sute they might not like it either, but we have to work together, and that's that.
"I hate to meet people in countries across the world and they tell me they're an Ulsterman and they're proud of it but they had to leave had to go America and Australia; that sickens me that people have been pushed out."
NL: How hard has it been since May 8 to hear former colleagues and friends denounce you?
IP: "It doesn't worry me. I am sorry for them and sorry for the attitude they took; for I have had tough political battles but I never attributed to people attitudes that weren't theres'. I didn't twist the position with scurrilous lies about them
"But I am not too worried about them and as far as the position of the DUP is concerned. All of these people have all old sores and when you look back they are people who did not get nominations or did not get their way in this or that. And now they are using this as an opportunity to get at me.
"But they should be very careful because they will destory themselves and will only harm their own people. And they have split families already. I know of families who have said that their son or daughter has taken a hardline about this and they are now outside the family because they have done it in a very bad way.
IP: Has it hurt you?
NL: "I would say that it's hurt my wife more than it's hurt me because she is a woman. She has worked by my side all these years in public office and she feels very sore. But it's a cross you have to carry."
NL: And now that you are First Minister, I have to ask the age old question - because rumours perisist - do you plan to stand down soon?
IP: "I was elected by the people of Northern Ireland to do a four year term and I am going to do a four year term. They did not say to me 'you go in there and then go home'. They said at the election you stay with us and there is no turning back.
"I am in good health and can do more than many of these younger fellas can do.
"I have a job to do and I am going to do it."
NL: And what about unionism in general, in this new era?
IP: "I think unionist confidence is very good and even the people who were wobbly, those people, by their remarks, do not seem so wobbly. There has been a change and it's only been natural that people have uncertainty. Ulster people are very honest and when they were asked to do something that was against the grain it was very hard for them. But I think some people have just not realised that we were not making a decision to sell out unionism but to save unionism and this was the salvation of unionism.
"And it has saved it."
NL: If the decision to share-power had not been taken, where do myou believe we would have been now?
"We would have been ruled from Dublin. The Plan B that they had was definitely to increase the power and influence of the Republic and to run ulster as a statelet, where the two secretaries of state (British and Irish) run the country.
"Now they are totally powerless in Northern Ireland and have no influence whatsoever in our day to day internal affairs. Power is in the hands of the people and in the majoirty of the people who are unionists.
"And anybody who questions my unionism they only have to look at the sacrifices I have made in the past. Do they think I am going to throw away a lifetime of work and sacrifice?"
IP: And what about people who look at you and say "the Doc has lost his marbles"?
NL: "I would say, if we had been ruled from Dublin, would you be happy then? You (the News Letter) would be the first people to say 'well Paisley should have saved of us from this'. Now we are in control of our own destiny and our own affairs."
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