Let people enjoy their Sunday!

The low profile which Ian Paisley has maintained since his retirement has actually impressed me. I suspected that his ego would require him to remain a public figure and that he could easily become the ‘ghost at the feast’ of Northern Ireland politics. As yet he has not fulfilled that role and has contented himself, in terms of public participation, merely with a column in the News Letter.

It is predictable enough that this week he has used this platform to attack Glentoran and the Irish Football Association for rearranging a fixture to last Sunday. I am always slightly bemused by the suggestion that playing sport is a violation of this so called day of rest. If, as Paisley believes, God provides us with Sunday for our own benefit, that we might “rest both mind and body from the matters that occupy us during the other six days”, enjoying that day by watching or playing football is a fine way to rest the mind and rejuvenate the body!

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