Editing Ian Paisley (section)

===Campaign against the Sunningdale Agreement===
{{main|Ulster Workers' Council strike}}
[[File:Troubled Images Exhibition, Belfast, August 2010 (03).JPG|thumb|200px|A United Ulster Unionist poster, warning that the Sunningdale Agreement would lead to "[[Dublin]] Rule" (i.e. a [[united Ireland]])]]
The [[Sunningdale Agreement]] of December 1973 set up a new [[Northern Ireland Executive (1974)|government for Northern Ireland]] in which unionists and nationalists would share power. It also proposed the creation of a Council of Ireland, which would facilitate co-ordination and co-operation between the governments of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Paisley and other hardline unionists opposed the Agreement. Specifically, they opposed sharing political power with nationalists and saw the Council of Ireland as a step towards a [[united Ireland]].

Paisley, along with anti-Agreement [[Ulster Unionist Party]] leader [[Harry West]] and [[Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party|Ulster Vanguard]] leader [[William Craig (Northern Ireland politician)|William Craig]], formed the [[United Ulster Unionist Council]] (UUUC) to oppose the Agreement. Its slogan was ''Dublin is just a Sunningdale away''.<ref>[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/sunningdale/chron.htm The Sunningdale Agreement – Chronology of Main Events] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110114104616/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/sunningdale/chron.htm |date=14 January 2011 }}. [[Conflict Archive on the Internet]] (CAIN).</ref> Loyalists formed the [[Ulster Workers' Council]] (UWC) to mobilise loyalist workers against the Agreement, while the loyalist paramilitary groups ([[Ulster Defence Association|UDA]], [[Ulster Volunteer Force|UVF]] etc.) formed the [[Ulster Army Council]] (UAC) to co-ordinate their response.

Addressing an anti-Agreement rally in January 1974, Paisley declared:<blockquote>Mr [[Brian Faulkner|Faulkner]] says it's 'hands across the border' to Dublin. I say if they don't behave themselves in [[Republic of Ireland|the South]], it will be ''shots'' across the border!<ref>[http://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/01/10/shots-across-the-border/ "Shots across the border"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140129192448/http://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/01/10/shots-across-the-border/ |date=29 January 2014 }}. Broadsheet.ie. 10 January 2014.</ref></blockquote>

On 15 May 1974, the UWC called a general strike aimed at bringing down the Agreement and the new government. A co-ordinating committee was set up to help organise the strike. It included Paisley and the other UUUC leaders, the leaders of the UWC, and the heads of the loyalist paramilitary groups. Its chairman was [[Glenn Barr]], a high-ranking member of Ulster Vanguard and the UDA. In its first meeting, Barr arrived late and found Paisley sitting at the head of the table. Barr told him "you might be chairman of the Democratic Unionist Party but I'm chairman of the co-ordinating committee, so move over". Paisley moved from the head of the table but carried the chair away with him and the two argued over the chair itself, with Paisley eventually allowed to keep it as he claimed to need a chair with arms due to back pain.<ref>Anderson, Don. ''14 May Days: The Inside Story of the Loyalist Strike of 1974''. Gill and Macmillan, 1994. p.75</ref>

The strike lasted fourteen days and brought Northern Ireland to a standstill. Loyalist paramilitaries helped to enforce the strike by blocking roads and intimidating workers.<ref>[[David George Boyce]] and Alan O'Day. ''Defenders of the Union: a survey of British and Irish unionism since 1801''. Routledge, 2001. p.255.</ref><ref>Tonge, Jonathan. ''Northern Ireland: Conflict and Change''. Pearson Education, 2002. p.119.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/uwc/anderson.htm|title=CAIN: Events: UWC Strike: Anderson, Don. – Chapter from '14 May Days'|access-date=14 September 2014|archive-date=7 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007014857/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/uwc/anderson.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> On 17 May, the third day of the strike, loyalists [[Dublin and Monaghan bombings|detonated four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan]], in the Republic of Ireland. The bombs killed 33 civilians and injured 300, making it the deadliest attack of the Troubles, and the deadliest terrorist attack in the Republic's history.<ref>[[Oireachtas]] [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/dublin/barron310304.pdf Sub-Committee report] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007033010/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/dublin/barron310304.pdf |date=7 October 2014 }} on the Barron Report (2004), p.25</ref> In an interview nine months before his death, Paisley said he was "shocked" by the bombings, but claimed that the Republic's government provoked the attack.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25673999 "Ian Paisley criticised over Dublin-Monaghan bombs comment"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180905233927/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25673999 |date=5 September 2018 }}. BBC News. 10 January 2014.</ref> The strike led to the downfall of the Agreement on 28 May.