Paisley link (From Barry And District News)

Paisley link

1:04pm Thursday 29th March 2007 in Letters

THIS might be an appropriate time to recall Ian Paisley's links with South Wales.

As a teenager he was a student at the Baptist College, Weston Square, Barry - now closed.

He preached his first sermons at the Navvy Mission, a few doors from the college.

He used to Bible punch at Barry Island and one of those who taught him how to do this was Jack Weston, who was married to my mother's sister Minnie (both now dead).

When my father was in the Navy, my mother used to take me to mass at St Helen's Catholic Church in the morning and the Navvy Mission, her church, in the afternoon.

Jack and Min Weston used to invite the students from the college, including Ian Paisley, to tea - and I am told that I often sat at the same table with him.

Ian Paisley also returned to Barry in the 1960s when he addressed a meeting at the Memorial Hall. He was both heckled and cheered.

When I interviewed him after the meeting one of his minders screamed falsely that the photographer was a member of the IRA.

He wasn't.

But standing next to me - in mufti - was a Catholic priest who before he was ordained was a full time secretary of the political wing of Sinn Fein.

John O'Sullivan (via e-mail)