THE REV Ian Paisley has said that as he prepared to lay down his "burden" of office as First Minister and DUP leader, the best tribute that could be paid to him was for people to continue making politics work in Northern Ireland.
Against claims by Ulster Unionist politicians such as party leader Sir Reg Empey and Lord Maginnis that he was forced to resign by elements in his own party, Dr Paisley insisted he was not "pushed" from office.
"Anybody that knows Ian Paisley knows that he is very hard to push," he said. Following his resignation announcement on Tuesday evening, Dr Paisley kept a low profile yesterday, but did a short interview with Belfast-based journalist Eamon Mallie with whom he has sparred for 30 years.
Asked why he was resigning after the May economic and investment conference when he initially said he wanted to serve a full four-year term as First Minister, Dr Paisley said, "I would like to have been here for a full term."
So why was he standing down? "Because there is a watershed after this conference and I think that I have brought people, shall I say, through the door and we are starting to do the furnishing, and I think that they are able to do that. I am not a youngster. There are some things that I want to do before I pass from the scene.
"I feel that I can leave down the onerous burden that was upon my shoulder with thanksgiving to God, and that I am leaving Northern Ireland better than when I took office," he said.
"The issue is simple: do I feel that as far as I am concerned I have delivered for the people of Northern Ireland what I wanted to deliver to them, and I believe I have. I am looking forward to the economic investment conference next month."
He was adamant that his decision last week to appoint his son, Ian Paisley jnr, to the Policing Board was the correct one, notwithstanding reports that it had agitated some DUP MLAs and could have hastened Dr Paisley's resignation announcement. "I believe that you should stand by people when they are under pressure from people who are telling lies about them . . . What's more I have a right as nominator for the DUP to put in a man and I put in a man who has experience," he said.
It was a matter for his successor as to whether Mr Paisley jnr, who recently resigned as a junior minister, would be removed from the board, but he did not think "there will be any changes made . . . That will be his business, not mine." Dr Paisley indicated that he was pleased with the media reaction to his resignation. "A lot of people who are looking into what is happening in Northern Ireland have said things that pleased me mighty well," he said. "For an ordinary person like myself in a small little province to have the press of the world putting it on the front page, and the vast majority of the articles had to admit, yes, I was essential to get Northern Ireland where it is today."
Asked about many reported and purported disparaging comments he had made about Catholics and Catholicism, Dr Paisley said: "I have good respect for the Roman Catholic population, and they know it." He said he was not bitter leaving office. "Why should I be bitter? Northern Ireland has been very good to me. My constituency has been very good to me. I have made a lot of friends who are not fair-weather friends.
"I am not perfect. I am not justifying everything I have done; that would be ridiculous."