NORTHERN IRISH unionist leader Ian Paisley has had a pacemaker fitted after falling ill during a meeting at the House of Lords last week, his son has confirmed.

Ian Paisley Jr said that his father, 84, was attending a meeting of Westminster’s Upper House last week before falling ill, and was treated by paramedics before being taken to St Thomas’s Hospital where the pacemaker was fitted.

“He wasn’t feeling the greatest, he didn’t pass out or faint or anything. He just knew he wasn’t up to his usual form,” Paisley Jr – who succeeded his father as MP for North Antrim in May of last year – told UTV.

The procedure had been “very successful”, the Guardian adds, and Paisley had been discharged within two days.

Paisley Jr added that his father had taken ill during a crossbench meeting at which the leader of the UK’s opposition, Labour’s Ed Miliband, was present.

“We’ll have to say to the leader of the opposition, ‘Hey, boy, you made my Da sick!’”

Paisley became First Minister in 2007 when devolved power was restored to Stormont, but retired in 2008 after also stepping down from his church roles.

He was made a member of the House of Lords last year and is now known as Baron Bannside of North Antrim, following his wife Eileen who was given the title of Baroness Paisley of St George’s in 2006.