The old warrior steps aside

Among the trouble spots around the globe, Northern Ireland is a qualified success story. Political leaders in the province reached out and compromised with once implacable foes.

No one more so than Ian Paisley, who has announced he is retiring as Northern Ireland's first minister in May.

Until recently he was described, and took joy, in his sobriquet of Dr No: "No negotiations, no compromise, no surrender" was the political message he regularly gave to both followers and opponents.

He iterated the deep mistrust that Unionists harboured. But his inflammatory rhetoric helped sink a power-sharing executive in the 1970s, before railing against the Anglo-Irish agreement a decade later.

And as recently as the 1990s he labelled the Good Friday Agreement treachery. Then followed a complete volte-face.

He suddenly embraced that which he once called treachery and led with distinction a government made up of people he said he would never even meet let alone sit down and work with.

More than 3,500 people died in what is euphemistically called "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. For seeking political compromise Paisley deserves immense credit but Northern Ireland would be a better place today had he embraced dialogue earlier.