Jew World Order

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Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 10:51 AM on 7th February 2012

Seriously ill: Ian Paisley was rushed to hospital in Belfast yesterday after suffering a suspected heart attack according to one source

The Rev Ian Paisley was in intensive care today undergoing treatment after suffering acute heart problems.

The 85-year-old former Northern Ireland First Minister was admitted to the Ulster Hospital, Dundonald, on the outskirts of Belfast.

Dr Paisley was taken to hospital on Sunday, ten days after preaching his final sermon as a minister.

Party colleagues were briefed at the
Parliament Buildings, Stormont, but one said they were given no details
about how he was taken ill or his condition.

It is understood Dr Paisley is
suffering from acute heart problems. One unconfirmed report claimed he
suffered a massive heart attack and was seriously ill. Another said it
was heart failure.

A
statement on behalf of his wife, Baroness Paisley, said: ‘She requests
the family’s privacy be respected at this difficult time.’

Dr Paisley, a former moderator and
founding member of the Free Presbyterian Church, was the MP for North
Antrim for nearly 40 years.

His
decision to lead the Democratic Unionists, the party he founded, into a
power-sharing administration with Sinn Fein was one of the most
significant developments in the Northern Ireland peace process. 

Prior to being taken ill, he had begun work on his memoirs.

He had tests for an undisclosed illness
in summer 2004 and afterwards admitted he had ‘walked in death’s
shadow’. He later had a pacemaker fitted.

Last service: Dr Paisley is seen at a church service where he preached his final sermon as the moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church after 65 years

Dr Paisley, now known as Lord Bannside
after being granted a peerage in 2010, preached his final sermon as the
moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church last month after 65 years.

Nearly 3,000 people attended the special service at the Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church in south Belfast.

Guests at the service included Stormont Health Minister Edwin Poots and DUP MP William McCrea.

His wife, their five children, ten grandchildren and two great grandchildren also attended.

Speaking
before the service, Dr Paisley said: ‘I am exceedingly happy that I’ve
had the privilege of being the preacher here for 65 years, and that’s a
long time.’

Firebrand: Dr Paisley was ejected from the European Parliament in 1998 for calling Pope John Paul II ‘the antichrist’ and is seen as one of the most controversial figures in the history of Northern Ireland

Controversial figure: Paisley marching with masked and hooded Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland in 1974

Dr Paisley came
to prominence preaching a ‘no surrender’ brand of politics before he
failed to block the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

He
is considered to be one of the most influential and controversial
figures in the history of Northern Ireland. Prior to being taken ill Dr
Paisley had begun work on his memoirs.

Talking of the book last year he said: ‘I will be telling some stories that will make some people laugh and others blush.’

There had been concerns several years ago about Mr Paisley’s health when he lost weight and looked gaunt.

But he made a good recovery from heart
problems and while his voice was showing signs of obvious weakness,
some people who were there for his farewell sermon at the Martyrs
Memorial Church in Belfast on January 27 remarked on how well he
appeared for his age.

One member of the congregation said: ‘I have rarely seen him in better form. Steady on his feet, it was
typical Paisley cracking the odd joke with a jibe. He may have looked
85, but he was in fine form, really good.’

‘He may have looked 85, but he was in fine form’

After withdrawing from church and public life he was planning to write his autobiography.

Mr Paisley, once a fierce opponent of
sharing government powers with nationalists and republicans in Northern
Ireland, was elected First Minister in May 2007 with Martin McGuinness, a
former IRA leader in Londonderry, as Deputy First Minister.

It was a remarkable partnership, the
two men becoming firm professional and personal friends, and who were
later nicknamed the ‘Chuckle Brothers’.

Mr Paisley’s five children – twin sons
Ian Jnr and Kyle, an ordained minister as well, and three daughters,
Rhonda, Sharon and Cherith – were among the 3,000 people for his final
address.

Now known as Lord Bannside, he said: ‘I am exceedingly happy that I’ve had the privilege of being the
preacher here for 65 years, and that’s a long time.

‘We have seen a miraculous work done,
and we have seen a great change in our city in many ways. We’ve seen a
change spiritually by people having respect for the Bible.’

Mr Paisley was a fierce critic of the
1998 Good Friday Agreement which led to the formation of the first
power-sharing administration at Stormont since 1974.

But in the aftermath of the signing of
another political arrangement which became known as the St Andrews
Agreement of 2006, he underwent an astonishing political transformation
which culminated with him going into power with Sinn Fein a year later.

It was a deal which would have been
unimaginable at the height of the IRA terrorist campaign, but this was a
much different Ian Paisley from the firebrand preacher who spent
decades on the margins of political power, damning the Catholic Church,
and who was once thrown out of the European Parliament for denouncing
Pope John Paul II as the anti-Christ.

He stood down as First Minister in May
2008 with his long-time deputy party leader Peter Robinson taking over
around the same time as he was made a life peer in Gordon Brown’s
Dissolution Honours List. He was MP for North Antrim from June 1970
until May 2010.

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