“DR” haha its widely known that his doctorate is a joke. It was given to him by a redneck fundamentalist university pal from the bob jones university.

@ Conor Foley:
“Dr. Paisley is still very much in the present”

sure he is, & i wish him well.
Marty McGuinness converted him from being arguably Europes’s nr. 1 bigot, into quite a likeable ol geezer.
BTW – he’s also managed to get Robinson to break into a smile, now & again – & that was some achievement too.

Most people in Ireland are in no way sectarian in outlook or viewpoint. In fact we now embrace the idea of different religions, difference in general. The northern state is a great shopping and cultural asset to the Island. Dr Paisley (while probably guilty of hate crimes in the distant past), is now viewed with affection by people ‘down south’

Ireland is and continues to be a sectarian state. There was a time when I despised the remarks of the late and unlamented Ian Paisley that in Ireland Rome rule applies. Despite the criminal actions of the Roman Catholic Church it still continues to dominate legislative policy in many areas.

The most sectarian provision in the Irish Constitution was they infamous Eight Amendment, the pro-life Article 40.3.3 equating the life of a pregnant woman and a foetus. That was passed in 1983 contrary to the wishes of the Church of Ireland and the Protestant Churches. The alliance of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and its boot boys, the Youth Defence League, the Life Institute and PLAC frightened timid politicians and a confused electorate into introducing a sectarian Constitutional provision into the Irish Constitution.

Who cares what it’s called. We need to move on from tribes and cave men mentality. We all share the earth and Germany and the banks rule our day to day activities.

The island of Ireland has, in recent history, consisted of two sectarian states. Their legacy is still with us.

If ever Ireland is to be one free state, which it has never been in history, it must put sectarianism behind it.