Protestant leader Ian Paisley, who spent decades refusing to cooperate with Northern Ireland's Catholic minority, was elected yesterday to oversee a power-sharing administration alongside his longtime Sinn Fein foes.
The unopposed election of Democratic Unionist Party chief Paisley as "first minister" of a new 12-member administration heralded an astonishing new era for Northern Ireland following decades of bloodshed and political stalemate that left 3,700 dead.
Paisley, 81, immediately affirmed an oath pledging to cooperate with Catholics and the government of the neighboring Republic of Ireland, moves that the evangelical firebrand had long denounced as surrender.
Seconds later, Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness accepted the No. 2 post of deputy first minister. McGuinness, a 56-year-old former commander of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, affirmed the same oath, which required all ministers to support the Northern Ireland police and British courts, a position that Sinn Fein refused for decades to accept.
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