Footnote 192, Chapter 9, Page 327:

A passage which had been included in the main paragraph on page 327 provides additional background information relevant to the DUP’s entrance into consociational government with SF: Paisley decided to join the executive and thereafter retained huge electoral support, after decades as the most successful articulator and promoter of anti-nationalist hatred. Paisley had taught his followers that “a government which consists of unpunished or unrepentant sinners cannot claim any divine authority and thus has no legitimacy.” Paisley had insisted that his Free Presbyterian Church, which worked in conjunction with his DUP, emphasize that “until Sinn Féin and the IRA either admitted their past crimes and gave themselves up to the police for punishment or repented, no member of the [church]… could go into government with them and remain in the Church.” Strikingly, having founded the church long before his political party, Paisley effectively decided to leave the church to go into government with SF, sharing equal executive power. Opponents of this decision within the church “forced an end to [Paisley’s] career as Moderator” but, having been the leader of this exclusionary movement for decades, he retained enough popular support to maintain his party’s electoral dominance among the unionist population. His successor as leader of the DUP, Peter Robinson, has carried on successfully Paisley’s enthusiastic and cooperative participation in the executive since Paisley’s retirement. Robinson’s actions and recent DUP support suggest that Paisley’s pivotal decision resulted from a systemic incentive for him to do so, rather than any ideological change of heart or aberration regarding him personally. Detailed analysis of Paisley’s entire career indicates that “absolutely none” of his “present and past disciples” say that “he did this because he had finally recognized the errors of his past and wished to make amends.”