FACTBOX-Facts about Ian Paisley

(Reuters) - Hardline Protestant cleric Ian Paisley became Northern Ireland's first minister on Tuesday when the province's Protestant and Catholic leaders launched a new power sharing government.

Here are some facts about Paisley:

* Born in 1926 in Armagh, the son of a dissident Baptist minister, he delivered his first sermon at age 16 and founded his own breakaway Free Presbyterian Church in 1951. Fiercely critical of the Catholic Church, Paisley once famously branded the Pope "the Anti-Christ".

* Emerged as a political force in the 1960s, leading protests over issues such as the flying of Irish flags in Belfast, and in 1971 set up the Democratic Unionist Party which became the province's biggest political party in 2005.

* His defense of Northern Ireland's position within the UK -- encapsulated in the war-cry "No Surrender" -- and his opposition to the Catholic Church have made him a hero to many Protestants but a rabble-rousing bigot to many Catholics.

* First elected to the British parliament in 1970 and to the European parliament in 1979, he was viewed as a spent force after opposing a 1998 peace deal but his uncompromising stance would later win him support from disillusioned Protestants.

* Paisley long resisted attempts to broker a political settlement and refused to talk to arch-enemy Sinn Fein, which he viewed as indistinguishable from the Irish Republican Army guerrilla group responsible for nearly half of the 3,600 killings during 30 years of sectarian conflict.

* In 2005 the IRA met Paisley's central demand when it pledged to disarm and pursue its aim of a united Ireland peacefully.

* Paisley finally agreed a power sharing deal with Sinn Fein's leader in March this year.