On January 29 2004, the late Ian Paisley made his way to the Irish Embassy in Belgravia London, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. It was a momentous occasion. For the first time ever, the DUP had outpolled the Ulster Unionist Party and Paisley, as party leader, arrived for his maiden meeting with Bertie Ahern, the then taoiseach, to begin a dialogue that would pave the way towards a new era of power-sharing with Sinn Fein. “Ian Paisley showed some of his sense of humour on that occasion. That was the meeting he said he wasn’t prepared to accept cooked…

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