Getting your player ready...
DUBLIN, Ireland — An era ended in Northern Ireland on Tuesday as Ian Paisley, the fiery evangelist who long personified Protestant resistance to Irish nationalism, announced he will step down as head of the territory’s power-sharing government and leader of his political party in May.
The 81-year-old Paisley’s career tracked the arc of tumult that tore at Northern Ireland, beginning with the bloodshed of sectarian clashes in the 1960s and continuing through four decades of conflict that finally culminated in reconciliation with Roman Catholics a year ago. Paisley plans to retain his legislative seats in Britain’s Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
