Rev Ian Paisley suffers heart failure

The former Northern Ireland first minister was admitted to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, Co Down, on the eastern outskirts of Belfast.

A statement on behalf of his wife, Baroness Paisley, said: “She requests that the family’s privacy be respected at this difficult time.”

Mr Paisley, 85, was rushed to hospital on Sunday, ten days after preaching his final sermon as a minister. He is a former moderator and founding member of the Free Presbyterian Church and was MP for North Antrim for almost 40 years.

Mr Paisley, who became Lord Bannside after being granted a peerage in 2010, was succeeded in North Antrim by his son, Ian Jnr.

Party colleagues were briefed in a meeting at the ParliamentBuildings, Stormont, and prayers were said. One member said they were given no details about how he became ill or his condition.

“We were just told he was unwell and in hospital. That was all.”

It is understood Mr Paisley has been on medication for several years for an enlarged heart, possibly since 2004. According to one source last night, the illness could be linked to heart failure, not a heart attack.

There had been concerns several years ago about Mr Paisley’s health when he lost weight and looked gaunt.

However, he made a recovery from heart problems and while his voice was showing signs of weakness, some people who were at his farewell sermon at the Martyrs Memorial Church in Belfast on 27 January remarked on how well he appeared for his age.

One member of the congregation said: “I have rarely seen him in better form. Steady on his feet, it was typical Paisley cracking the odd joke with a jibe. He may have looked 85, but he was in fine form, really good.”

After withdrawing from church and public life, he was planning to write his autobiography.

Mr Paisley, once a fierce opponent of sharing government powers with nationalists and republicans in Northern Ireland, was elected first minister in May 2007, with Martin McGuinness, a former IRA leader in Londonderry, as deputy first minister.

It was a remarkable partnership, the two men becoming firm professional and personal friends who were later nicknamed the “Chuckle Brothers”.

Mr Paisley’s five children – twin sons Ian Jnr and Kyle, an ordained minister as well, and three daughters, Rhonda, Sharon and Cherith – were among the 3,000 people who attended his final address.

He said: “I am exceedingly happy that I’ve had the privilege of being the preacher here for 65 years, and that’s a long time.

“We have seen a miraculous work done, and we have seen a great change in our city in many ways. We’ve seen a change spiritually by people having respect for the Bible.”

He underwent tests for an undisclosed illness in summer 2004, and afterwards admitted he had “walked in death’s shadow”.

Some years later, he had a pacemaker fitted after feeling unwell at the House of Lords.

Mr Paisley was a fierce critic of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which led to the formation of the first power-sharing administration at Stormont since 1974.

However, in the aftermath of the signing of another political arrangement, which became known as the St Andrews Agreement of 2006, he underwent an remarkable political transformation which culminated with him going into power with Sinn Fein a year later.

He stood down as first minister in May 2008 with his long-time deputy party leader Peter Robinson taking over around the same time as Mr Paisley was made a life peer in Gordon Brown’s dissolution honours list.