Irish Echo editorial: Paisley is in from the wilderness

Now, for the first time, following last week’s watershed election in Northern Ireland, he finds himself leading the largest party in the suspended assembly.
There was a time when Paisley and Bernadette Devlin defined the Northern “Troubles” for people the world over. She represented the hopes of a new generation, he the old prejudices of the discredited past.
There are new faces now, but Paisley’s is still among them, an abiding reminder that some things in Northern Ireland do not change. One of them is the deep-seated resistance to change that emerges regularly among the North’s Protestant population. Paisley was the embodiment of that resistance from the late 1960s onward. So he remains to this day.
Paisley and his party now confront their biggest challenge. The question that has always hovered over his head is what he would do if he ever found himself in a position of power. The election has not brought him to power, but it has put him in a position that will enable him to determine whether devolved government will be restored anytime soon to Northern Ireland. Is he capable of going from being the perpetual opponent of change to embracing the new dispensation?
Northern Ireland has seen quite a few political miracles in recent years. But those who believe that Paisley will become a supporter of the Good Friday agreement must expect a conversion on the scale of St. Paul’s on the road to Damascus. It is more likely that his victory will send the prospects of devolved government into the wilderness for some time to come.