DUBLIN (AP) — The Rev. Ian Paisley, the divisive Protestant firebrand who devoted his life to thwarting compromise with Catholics in Northern Ireland only to become a pivotal peacemaker in his twilight years, died Friday in Belfast, his wife said. He was 88.

Paisley was Northern Ireland’s most polarizing politician throughout the worst years of its civil strife, during which the evangelist’s blistering oratory was often blamed for fueling four decades of bloodshed that claimed 3,700 lives.

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