Paisley set for handover

Peter Robinson is set to become the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and Northern Ireland's first minister as Ian Paisley prepares to step down.

On Saturday Paisley hands over the leadership of the province's biggest party to the current Stormont finance minister.

Robinson will then take up office as first minister on Thursday after more than a year of power sharing with republicans.

Paisley has hailed the achievements he and his once forsworn enemy Martin McGuiness have managed together as first and deputy first ministers.

Preparing to address DUP members before the handover Paisley said of former IRA commander McGuiness: "We've never shook hands, I've said to him 'I don't believe in handshaking, it's whether you have a proper practice' (between you).

"And he agreed that we would do our best and we would fight our corner and we'll do our best to try and get decisions made that we can all live with, if not love.

"And that's what we did and I think it's been very successful and I think also the success of it rests on the attitude of the people.

"The Roman Catholic population here and the Protestant population never were as close together as they are today, they are all saying no more bad days, no more killings, we are going this way.

"And that is the greatest thing, there is a great unity.

"Look at the people we've had in here (at Stormont); people that would have pulled one another's eyes out and they have been in here."

Some critics, particularly unionist hardliners, have claimed Paisley became too chummy with McGuinness in government, dubbing the pair the "chuckle brothers".

However the allegations of 'selling out' from one-time supporters who've now left the DUP and rebranded themselves as the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) do not bother him.

"I just laugh at them. All these people who were DUP people have old grudges in their hearts; this matter we are at today (the status quo at Stormont) is very little to do with it.

"They have old grudges and didn't get (party) nominations and so forth and they've all come out on that wing (the TUV), but that is weakening every day."

As for the post-Paisley era at Stormont, the Ballymena man fully expects things to change under the leadership of his long-time ally, Robinson; in fact, he says he would be disappointed if they didn't.

"You'll have a different brand now. Peter will be in charge and he will do his own thing in his own way, and rightly so.

"I wouldn't want him doing it any other way, I don't want him to be an aper of me, I want him to be himself.

"And I hope we are going to get a lot more younger people into office in the new councils that are going to be set up (under plans to redraw council boundaries in Northern Ireland in 2011) and also in the next election to the Assembly, there will be a lot of old fellas like me will be paid off and told to go and drink their buttermilk.

"I would like to think that the people that are going to have to live in Northern Ireland are the people that should mould Northern Ireland into the Northern Ireland that they want to have, and that's the younger elements.

"And I look forward to that - I think that will be an evolution and I believe by the grace of God we'll see the end of all these remnants of people who want to kill and destroy."

Paisley is sure the dissident republicans and others who still seek to destabilise the new political arrangements are in their death throes.

That is a far cry from the height of the conflict, when he thought Northern Ireland was on the cusp of slipping into outright civil war.

"I did fear that, I was very, very worried. We had a terrible time, but I think those bad old days are now past.

"I believe that there are very difficult pockets in Northern Ireland that will have to be squeezed out but I think those pockets do not have the support of the community. I think both communities have set their face against it."