Ian Paisley weaponized anti-Catholic evangelical rhetoric into a mass political movement, positioning himself as the defender of Protestant identity while strategically condemning violence he had effectively encouraged through his incendiary speeches.

46:10and maybe that would be no bad thing. He is this colossal figure in the life of Northern Ireland. He goes from the most sort of strident demagoguery to power sharing in the 1990s and 2000s which just seems absolutely bonkers as a trajectory. And like everyone else in this story he is profoundly shaped by history. So he's born in Armar in 1926. His father was a Baptist minister and

46:35his father had served in Sir Edward Carson's volunteers and Ian Paisley himself becomes a Baptist minister and he preached his first sermon when he was 16. Wow. He's a massive bloke. He's like 6'4 or something. Do you know what? He looks brilliant in a dog collar. Really? It really suits him. I think dog collars when they're around a scrawny neck >> look a bit a bit weedy,

47:00>> but with him he looks like um a Celtic warrior with a torque. I mean, he probably wouldn't like that comparison actually. >> But he Yeah, he could look like a Saxon warrior with the talk. Maybe he might take that. I don't know. Or Scottish Scottish warrior, I suppose. >> So, he's this fire brand fundamentalist style. In 1951, he set up his own kind of Calvinist church, the Free

47:21Presbyterian Church of Olter. uh he believes in the literal truth of the Bible. He thinks the established churches of Olter which strike most observers as quite hardline conservative churches but he thinks they are weak soft roish sellouts. The snobber is parallel of course with southern evangelical preachers in the United States and later in his life he does forge very strong links with Bob Jones University in South Carolina. Bob Jones

47:52University. Are you aware of Bob Jones University? >> No. >> You're not? >> No. >> Bob Jones University is a big deal because Bob Jones University was an anti-atholic um ultraestant university evangelical. I can't remember when it was set up, but George W. Bush went and gave a speech there in 2000 when he was campaigning for the Republican nomination. Was it set up by a guy called Bob Jones or did

48:14they just what? Let's think of a funny name. >> Bob Jones. You laugh at Bob Jones University and you are foolish to do so. It has 3,000 students. It has an endowment of $20 million. And the current chancellor, Bob Jones III. >> Well, I take it all back. I apologize to Bob Jones. >> So anyway, Ian Paisley forged links with Bob Jones University. And so there's a

48:39sort of there are lots of southern evangelicals who love Ian Paisley. His calling card rather like that of Bob Jones actually is absolutely red-hot evangelical old-fashioned anti-atholicism. And if people enjoy anti-atholic rhetoric, this podcast is the place for it. >> Should I do it? >> You do it. Yeah, I think you should do it cuz you do the voice. Throw popery. The devil has shut up the way to our

49:05inheritance. priestcraft, superstition and papalism with all their attendant voices of murder, theft, immorality, lust, and incest have blocked the way to the land of gospel liberty. >> That's that's >> Yeah, that's good. That's his take. >> That is I mean it's a it's a view. Now, people may have raised their eyebrows there about the he's talking about priestcraft and it's attendant voices of murder and whatnot, but also lust and