21 Facts About Ivan Foster

Ivan Foster was born on 1943 and is a retired senior minister in the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and a former Democratic Unionist Party politician.

Ivan Foster found employment with Ulster Television as a trainee film editor and enjoyed a somewhat raucous private life before turning to religion.

However, once he heard Ian Paisley, whom Ivan Foster refers to as "the Big Man", speaking he immediately became a devoted follower of both his religious and political views.

Ivan Foster promptly entered training for a ministerial life in the Free Presbyterian Church.

Ivan Foster was ordained a minister of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in 1968.

Ivan Foster has undertaken evangelical missions in Canada and was for many years the head of the Free Presbyterian Education Board.

Ivan Foster is outspokenly in favour of corporal punishment and in 2001, in response to a public debate about the British Government's plans to ban corporal punishment in the home, he condemned the NSPCC as having a part in an 'evil' plan to abolish it.

Ivan Foster retired from the ministry of Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church in November 2008.

Ivan Foster remains active as a minister in his retirement.

Ivan Foster conducted the funeral of Larne UVF man Sinclair Johnston in 1972, although in this case Foster and Johnston were related.

Ivan Foster first became active in politics in 1964 when, along with fellow student minister William Beattie, he campaigned in support of Ulster Protestant Action members seeking election to Belfast Corporation.

Ivan Foster became a close associate of Paisley, who at the time utilised provocative street demonstrations targeting both Catholic areas and mainstream Protestant denominations, and was arrested and briefly held in Crumlin Road Gaol in 1966 for public order offences.

Ivan Foster was a member of the DUP during the 1980s being a member of Omagh District Council and winning a seat in the Northern Ireland assembly elections of 1982 for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency.

Ivan Foster was the commander of the Fermanagh battalion of Paisley's vigilante group, the Third Force, one of the few regions of the group that undertook any real activity.

Ivan Foster gained his greatest notoriety in 1986 when he was one of the three founders of Ulster Resistance.

Subsequently, Ivan Foster abandoned political life to concentrate on his work as a Free Presbyterian minister, having decided that the policies of the DUP were becoming too liberal.

Ivan Foster formally announced his resignation from the party in 1989, adding particular criticism of the close relationship between Paisley and Ulster Unionist Party leader Jim Molyneaux, which Foster felt was compromising DUP independence.

Whilst continuing in his ministry the politically retired Ivan Foster would emerge from time to time as a critic of the DUP that he had left.

Ivan Foster accused Dodds of disobeying God's words by attending the service, arguing that it was a wicked ceremony as it was addressed by Sean Cardinal Brady, Catholic Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, whom Ivan Foster accused of being a priest of the Antichrist.

Ivan Foster subsequently became outspoken in the political path taken by Ian Paisley.

Ivan Foster's condemnation grew stronger on Sunday 7 January 2007 when, in a sermon lasting 70 minutes, Ivan Foster denounced Dr Paisley because of his apparent willingness to enter into a coalition government with Sinn Fein.