Paisley and Dana launch new chapter

Local & National

No more 'Dr No': meet the new Ian Paisley

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

By Noel McAdam

First Minister Ian Paisley joined singer Dana on a Stormont stage last night - and insisted: "I'm glad to stand with her."

The Londonderry diva and the DUP doyen were in total harmony at a special Parliament Buildings reception and sang each other's praises as people of conviction.

They came together to launch Dana's autobiography inevitably titled All Kinds Of Everything, after her Eurovision Song Contest million-seller.

The soon-to-stand-down Free Presbyterian moderator and leading Catholic conservative Dana, aka Rosemary Scallon, seemed to represent the new era in Northern Ireland. All signs of many things.

Major figures from the Maiden City were out in force, including Nobel Laureate John Hume, ex-champion boxer Charlie Nash, retired Bishop Edward Daly and the BBC's 'Stroke City' presenter Gerry Anderson.

Politics and showbiz combined as Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness - another Derry man - and SDLP Minister Margaret Ritchie mingled in the packed hall with comedian Frank Carson and double Eurovision winner Johnny Logan.

Mr Paisley claimed he remembered hearing Dana, sitting listening to the wireless with his mother many years ago and said he had told her: " Mammy, that lady can sing.

"But I never dreamed I would be standing with her at Stormont...It is a thrill for us all."

The DUP leader revealed he first met Dana in the European Parliament where, he said "they have all sorts of convictions and many of them ought to be criminal convictions."

He quipped that the occasion had allowed him to meet people he had always wanted to, although he never thought it would happen at Stormont - among them former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, with whom he was photographed for the first time.

The First Minister also joked about people from the Irish Republic joining the platform with a "blatant unionist" and, to laughter, told Mr Reynolds: "You're right behind me!"

Appearing to refer to the 'Chuckle Brothers' sobriquet he shares with Mr McGuinness, Mr Paisley said that he had been accused of smiling too much, but added: "Well, I'm going to keep smiling."

In his speech he spoke of Dana as a woman of great faith and steel who had stood up for what she believed in, and added: "I'm glad to stand with her."

He said when Dana had been asked why she had asked him to host her book launch she had said it was because they were both people of conviction.

"I hope that when everyone on this island reads this book I hope they ponder what it says," he added.

Dana said the room was a mixture of all kinds of everything, including her childhood friends and her own children.

She revealed that writing the book was an emotional journey for her. " There were tears shed for the emotional times, the people that we can no longer turn to, my father for example, and happier times."

The book traces her life from schooldays in the Bogside to the White House and the Vatican, and the background to becoming the first independent candidate to contest the election to become the President of Ireland.

It also reveals how, when her vocal chords began failing her, she had to turn down offers from international superstars the Bee Gees to write songs for her.

"It is a new chapter I think for our country, it is a new chapter for the North."

And she told her guests: "I wish you all kinds of everything that is good."