Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has acknowledged the extraordinary journey DUP leader Peter Robinson made from being a loyalist "hard man" to a strong protector of the peace process and institutions.

Tributes were paid from north and south of the Border yesterday to Mr Robinson.

Mr Ahern, and another key player in the peace process, Dr Martin Mansergh, both said yesterday the "hard edge" that marked much of Mr Robinson's early career could and should not be forgotten in any assessment of it.

Mr Ahern said his legacy would have to take into account the long period where he was openly hostile to the Republic and nationalism, to the more moderate figure that emerged in more recent years.

Hardline

“He was very hardline through all the years. There were a lot of reasons for that . . . A lot of people he knew had been shot in east Belfast. There were a lot of reasons to be bitter.

“He went through a long period of being very hostile to the Republic and nationalism and republicanism by extension.

“He was very much part of the ‘out, out, out’ and ‘no, no, no’ brigade.”

A transition happened from 2001 to 2003, said Mr Ahern, when Mr Robinson become one of the key strategists in a shift of position that eventually allowed the St Andrews Agreement to be signed.

“He was the driving force behind that change, not the Reverend [Paisley].”

He said it had been Mr Robinson who kept things going in the DUP over the past seven years as far as working the agreement was concerned.

He said the DUP leader was very good at detail, understood tactics, and had a grasp and understanding of business that his predecessor did not.

“All of the work of pulling in the new people and getting young academically minded people into the DUP, that was very much his strategy.

“He moved the party away from the perception of fundamentalism, by pulling in a lot of brain power and good people.”

On a personal level, Mr Ahern said his relationship and dealings with Mr Robinson were “all business” and never went beyond that.

Mr Ahern said that with many loyalists and DUP politicians, he would mine his own good knowledge of English and Scottish soccer to find a shared interest. That would serve as an ice-breaker, but it never happened with Robinson.

Strategic thinker

“I even discussed a GAA match with

Ian Paisley

. I never got to do that with Peter Robinson. I could not even tell you what team he supported. He was not that kind of a guy. I never found out too much from him,” he said.

Dr Mansergh said initially he was “a very hard-edged part of the DUP” but from the 1990s he was regarded as the DUP’s main strategic thinker.

“Even though it was not necessarily very visible, he played a key part in guiding the elderly Ian Paisley from 2003 on the path that led the DUP into the Executive.

“He deserves enormous credit for keeping the show on the road continuously from 2007 until the present day, eight years at this point, despite various upsets and crises.”