Robinson served in the role of General Secretary of the DUP from 1975, a position which he held until 1979 and which afforded him the opportunity to exert extraordinary influence within the fledgeling party.

Following the re-establishment of devolved government in Northern Ireland as a result of the Good Friday Agreement, Robinson was elected in 1998 as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East.

Robinson was elected unopposed to succeed Ian Paisley as leader of the DUP on 15 April 2008, and was subsequently confirmed as First Minister of Northern Ireland on 5 June 2008.

[1][2] In January 2010, following a scandal involving his wife Iris, Robinson temporarily handed over his duties as First Minister to Arlene Foster under the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 2006.

[10] In 1966 Robinson first heard Ian Paisley speak at a rally at Ulster Hall and shortly afterwards left school to devote himself to the Protestant fundamentalist cause.

[12] Robinson initially gained employment as an estate agent for R.J. McConnell & Co and later with Alex, Murdoch & Deane in Belfast, and then he became the DUP's first general secretary in 1975.

[10] Robinson had by 1970 come to Paisley's notice after writing a pamphlet called The North Answers Back which attacked the Northern Ireland civil rights movement and defended the Stormont government.

[12] A senior loyalist politician recalled walking into the Ulster Workers' Council HQ on Hawthornden Road to find Peter Robinson and Jim Allister "giggling", phoning SDLP headquarters claiming to be Catholics in distress in a loyalist area afflicted by the strike and asking the SDLP to send a car to rescue them.

[16] Robinson was selected as DUP candidate for Belfast East during the 1979 general election, a seat which previously had a big Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) majority.

[28] Robinson faced claims that he knew his wife had obtained £50,000 from two developers for her teenage lover but did not tell the proper authorities, leading to him asking the House of Commons and the Northern Ireland Assembly to carry out an inquiry into his conduct.

After an OFMdFM lawyer advised Robinson that he had committed no wrongdoing, he returned to active duty as First Minister despite the ongoing investigations by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Assembly Commissioner for Standards and Privileges.

While the police investigation into the conduct of the Peter and Iris Robinson concluded in a recommendation not to prosecute in 2011, the Standards and Privileges enquiry remained incomplete three years after it was ordered by the Assembly.

On 5 February 2010, Robinson and McGuinness oversaw the devolution of policing and justice powers from the British Parliament to the Northern Ireland Assembly, negotiating a power-sharing deal with Sinn Féin.

[10] In 2012, Robinson was involved in the historic visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Northern Ireland, when she shook hands with Martin McGuinness.

[36] Following the signing of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement Robinson tried to enlist the paramilitary group to join demonstrations including taking over towns at night.

[11] In a profile by World in Action in 1986 Robinson acknowledged that he was relying on the UDA for "muscle" in the unionist confrontation with the British government over the Agreement, but justified the strategy on the basis that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had ignored the elected representatives of unionism and "other means" were necessary.

[36] Robinson and UUP MP Harold McCusker were pallbearers at the funeral of UDA commander John McMichael, who was assassinated at his home by the IRA in December 1987.

[38] He also was a pallbearer with DUP politician Sammy Wilson at the funeral of UDA leader Ray Smallwoods, who served half of a 15-year sentence for the attempted murder of Bernadette McAliskey in 1981.

[39] On 7 August 1986, in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement, Robinson led a group of loyalists into the village of Clontibret in County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland to demonstrate the lack of security along the Irish border.

In the late 1970s, Robinson became widely known as the organiser of the DUP's Save Ulster from Sodomy campaign to prevent the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland.

[12] On 30 October 2008, in his first extensive interview as First Minister (for Hearts and Minds on BBC Northern Ireland), Peter Robinson stated that homosexuality was against Christian theology.

[47] On 30 March 2010, the BBC reported that Robinson had purchased a piece of land from a developer for £5, enabling him to sell part of his back garden for nearly £460,000.

[49] On 8 January 2010 the BBC Northern Ireland programme Spotlight[50] reported on how his wife, Iris, had obtained £50,000 for Kirk McCambley, 19 at the time, while in a sexual relationship with him.

[51] On the day before the Spotlight programme, Peter Robinson had made an emotional statement to the Press Association, BBC, UTV and RTÉ in regard to the relationship and stated that there had been no financial wrongdoing.

[52] The programme maintained that when Robinson found out about the financial aspects of his wife's relationship he insisted that the money she had lobbied two property developers for and which she subsequently lent and gave to her lover be returned in full.

It claimed that he did not tell the proper authorities what he knew about the transactions between the four, despite being obliged by the Northern Ireland Executive ministerial code of conduct to act in the public interest at all times.

Later that day Robinson's solicitors said he was thoroughly satisfied that he had at all times acted properly and fulfilled all requirements, and would robustly challenge any allegation to the contrary.

[54] Robinson's principal private secretary was found to have been involved, in February 2010, in trying to have criticism of the DUP's working relationship with Sinn Féin censored from FAIR's website.

[55] Seven months later FAIR's funding by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) was stopped following allegations of financial irregularities in the group.

[65] He is author of a number of books and pamphlets on local politics and history including: The Union Under Fire (1995); Sinn Féin – A Case for Proscription (1993); Hands off the UDR (1990); Their Cry was no Surrender (1986); Ulster in Peril (1984); Carson – Man of Action (1984); It's Londonderry (1984); A War to be Won (1983); Self-Inflicted (1981); Ulster the Facts (1981); Savagery and Suffering (1975); Capital Punishment for Capital Crime (1974); Give Me Liberty (no date); Ulster—the Prey (no date).