Party Democratic Unionist Party | ||
 | ||
Spouse Ian Paisley (m. 1956–2014) Similar Ian Paisley, Ian Paisley Jr, Rhonda Paisley | ||
Eileen Emily Paisley, Baroness Paisley of St George's (née Cassells; born 2 November 1931, Belfast) is a Northern Irish Unionist politician, a vice-president of the Democratic Unionist Party, and the widow of Ian Paisley, Lord Bannside, former leader of the DUP. She became a life peer in 2006.
Contents
Marriage
Eileen Emily Cassells married Ian Richard Kyle Paisley on 13 October 1956. They have five children, a daughter Rhonda (a graduate of Bob Jones University, who served as a member of Belfast City Council but has long since left politics), and two further daughters Sharon and Cherith. They also have twin sons, Kyle and Ian (the former a Free Presbyterian minister, the latter a DUP MP).
Political career
Eileen Paisley was elected as a councillor in Belfast in 1967 for the Protestant Unionist Party, the forerunner to the DUP, three years before her husband was elected to Stormont and Westminster. She was also elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1973 and the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention in 1975, representing Belfast East both times.
It was announced on 11 April 2006 that she would be one of the first three members of the DUP to be created a life peer. She was gazetted on 14 June 2006 as Baroness Paisley of St George's, of St George's in the County of Antrim, after the ward that she represented on Belfast City Council. She was introduced to the House of Lords on 3 July 2006. Since 6 June 2013, Baroness Paisley has been on a leave of absence from the House of Lords.
In a December 2015 interview with the BBC, Paisley stated that she would "not go out of her way" to vote for the DUP in future elections following the party's alleged "betrayal" over her late husband's resignation as party leader in 2008.