Arch-enemy meets the Catholic Archbishop

BELFAST - Hardline Protestant leader Ian Paisley will today meet the leader of Northern Ireland's Catholics in a sign that the latest attempt at power-sharing in the province has momentum.

Paisley, the 80-year-old leader of the church he founded, the Free Presbyterians, is having a series of meetings with all church leaders before a crucial British Government conference this week.

But the one with Dr Sean Brady, the Archbishop of Armagh, can only be described as extraordinary, and an indication that this time there is a possibility that a political agreement may be reached between Paisley and the largest Catholic party, Sinn Fein.

Paisley, leader of the hardline Protestant and Unionist party, the Democratic Unionists, has been the politician vetoing any return to Catholic and Protestant power-sharing in Northern Ireland since the power-sharing executive was suspended by the British Government four years ago.

In that time his party has overtaken the more accommodating Ulster Unionist Party to become Northern Ireland's biggest political group and Gerry Adams' Sinn Fein has become the biggest Catholic party.

If the power-sharing government is to be restored they have to agree to sit in Cabinet together. So far Paisley has refused.

But he has also been a campaigner and demonstrator against any involvement of the Catholic Church in the politics of Northern Ireland for much longer, 60 years as an active politician.

Even though five years ago his health seemed to be failing, he has never shown any lasting sign or readiness to compromise with the Catholic Church or Catholic political parties.

The outcome of the meeting between Paisley and Brady will be watched closely by those anxious to see a successful outcome for the British Government conference, which will be held in Scotland.

The British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, has said that he will stop salaries for elected Northern Ireland politicians from November 24 if they cannot reach some level of agreement in Scotland.

Last week the Independent Monitoring Commission, set up to check whether Northern Ireland's terrorist organisation were observing cease-fires, said that the IRA, with which Sinn Fein is linked, has so completely disbanded and is now so fully engaged in democratic politics that it would be almost impossible for it to start a new terror campaign.

Paisley said that only the DUP's hard-line stance had achieved this result.

Ian Paisley

* Ordained in 1946 at the independent Ravenhill Evangelical Mission Church in Belfast.

* Is a former member of the Orange Institution. Resigned in 1962 in protest at the failure to discipline a senior member for attending a Catholic Mass.

* His use of the title Dr derives from an honorary doctor of divinity degree awarded by Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian college in the United States.

* Set up his own newspaper, the Protestant Telegraph, a strongly anti-Catholic title, as a mechanism for further spreading his message.

* Founder and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, currently the largest party in Northern Ireland.