Ian Paisley Seriously Ill

The former First Minister and DUP leader Ian Paisley was brought to hospital last week, and spent most of it in intensive with a serious heart condition.

The 85-year-old is being treated at the Ulster Hospital in east Belfast.

Family members held a vigil at his bedside- his condition was said to have improved at the weekend although he remains in hospital.

His friend the Rev Alan Smylie said he had been inundated with inquiries about Dr Paisley's health since he took ill.

"People in the street who know me have stopped me and been asking how he is," he said.

"It's people across the board - it doesn't matter. A gentleman rang and said I just want to ask you how he is. There was also a letter from a man from down south asking how he was."

The new moderator of the Presbyterian Church the Rev Roy Patton expressed his best wishes too.

"We have had our differences in the past but it would be inappropriate to dwell on those differences at the present time but rather recognize the qualities that Dr Paisley has brought to his ministry, his faith, his pastoral word and his desire to serve in the ways in which we all seek to serve," he said.

Paisley is a towering and divisive figure in Northern Irish politics.

But the good wishes and prayers came from across the community, with Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness issuing a joint statement.

"The First Minister and the deputy First Minister have both been in contact with the Paisley family. They have offered their best wishes to Dr Paisley and his family and call on the community to give prayerful support to Ian and his family at this time.

"The First Minister and the deputy First Minister would appeal for the Paisley family to be given the space and privacy they deserve and that their wishes are respected."

Paisley has been the leading light of hardline unionism for decades, and has been blamed by nationalists for fueling sectarian violence during the Troubles with his famous "Ulster says No" slogans.

He was an opponent of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

But after the DUP became the North's biggest party in 2005, he entered talks with Sinn Fein, and in 2007 jonied them in a power-sharing government in Stormont.

He formed an unlikely friendship with former IRA commander Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness who was his deputy as First Minister, earning the pair the nickname "the chuckle brothers", as they were regularly photographed smiling together as they went around the world seeking investment in Northern Ireland.

Paisley retired from politics in 2010 and preached his final sermon at his church in January.