Belfast, U.K.

End of an era: Ian Paisley, the Protestant minister who heads Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, said this week he would step down as first minister. Paisley, 81, has dominated politics in the British province for decades as head of the Democratic Unionist Party, which he founded in 1971 to oppose compromise with the Catholics. He shocked many hard-liners in his party last year when he decided to share power with Catholic parties. Paisley said he would remain a member of the legislature, and he refused to recommend a successor as first minister. “This is not the Church of Rome,” he said.

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