(born 1926), militant Irish Protestant leader, born in Armagh, County Armagh, Northern Ireland; studied at schools of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in S. Wales and Belfast; cofounded the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster (1951); voice of extreme Protestant opinion since the 1960s, leading demonstrations throughout N. Ireland despite imprisonments; attacked government ministers in London for conferring with ministers in Dublin, arguing that British were siding with Roman Catholic hierarchy against Ulster; elected to British House of Commons (1970); resigned in 1985 to protest the Anglo-Irish Agreement but reelected in 1986; elected to European Parliament (1979); cofounded the Democratic Unionist Party and organized the Third Force; writings include ‘Paisley's Pocket Preacher', 3 vol. (1987–89).