ONE of the most divisive figures in Northern Ireland politics, Ian Paisley, has died following a long illness, it was confirmed yesterday.

The former leader and founder of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Mr Paisley was reviled by nationalists and republicans as a sectarian bigot whose incendiary rhetoric deliberately exacerbated tensions.

His establishment of an armed paramilitary organisation, the Third Force, as well as his frequent and vitriolic attacks on the Catholic Church and his infamous “Save Ulster from Sodomy” campaign did little to change that opinion.