Every day I dream that Hannelore Kohl will give the bastard [Helmut Kohl] an extra lump of suet to kill him.

- Self-proclaimed Europhobe and founder of Immigration Control Platform, Aine Ni Chonaill

What are they going to apologise for? Are they apologising for the government of the day? The military political machine of the day? Are they trying to apologise on my behalf and my soldiers'? I would have to warn them not to do so. They cannot apologise for me.

- The officer who commanded the Parachute Regiment in Derry on Bloody Sunday, Lieut Col Derek Wilford, referring to the British government

Now, Gerry, here's the chance for you to show that leadership and discipline I know you are capable of. Gerry, you brought the Semtex here, what about a big bang to get rid of as much of it as you can.

- Sir John Gorman, former chairman of the Northern Ireland Forum, to Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams, during an Assembley debate on the Omagh bomb

Like most of my generation, I was bombed by better men than the IRA when I was still in short trousers.

- Lord Tebbitt, the former Conservative cabinet minister-badly injured by the IRA's 1984 Brighton bomb

Why did they kill my daddy? I loved him. He was big and he brought me everywhere.

- Sean McColgan (11), whose father, John, was shot dead in his taxi by loyalists

We're perfectly capable, should the need arise, to say No. After all it's going back to what we know best.

- The leader of the UUP, David Trimble

Death by murder is like a double death. There is a will behind it. You say to yourself that somewhere on earth is the person who did it, that there is a devil somewhere in the hills of southern Ireland.

- Daniel Toscan du Plantier, breaking his silence 13 months after his wife, Sophie, was murdered in West Cork

Even an abortionist deserves to be treated as a person.

Dana (Rosemary Scallon)

They asked me whether I had any girls in recovery who would like to do some modelling.

- Donna O'Connor, chief psychologist with the Irish Eating Disorders Association, on approaches by a model agency

Why, Tanaiste, are you assusing me of accusing you of misleading the House when what I accused you of was concealing information?

Pat Rabbitte to Ms Mary Harney

I am firmly convinced we are being conned. I believe the talks are a farce. There are those prepared to compromise, and that is totally wrong, totally unaccceptable.

- Bernadette Sands-McKevitt, sister of Bobby Sands, in a criticism of the Sinn Fein leadership

We are terribly upset about what is taking place . . . I am frightened out of my life that they will do something to my children.

- Bernadette Sands-McKevitt's reported comments to a Father Desmond Campbell as her neighbours in Blackrock, Co Louth, pre- pared to picket her home in an expression of outrage

If we can't have a united Ireland, then we can't have a United British kingdom.

- The Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams

I asked myself what country was I living in. Was I living in Russia after the revolution?

- Miss Maureen Haughey, sister of the former Taoiseach, on learning the Moriarity tribunal was to investigate her bank accounts

They were good and bad. Those who were good were very good. Those who were bad were mental, to tell you the truth.

- Former Christian Brothers Boy, Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein

People react differently to having killed someone. Some just walk into The RUC station and admit the murder because they can't live with themselves. Others find God. But I couldn't do that because I am a devout atheist. Others just fall apart. But if you're to survive you just cope. It's as simple as that.

- Talks participant Billy Hutchinson of the PUP reflects on his time in prison for murder

I'd love to spend the rest of my life on a beach in Barbados with a load of babes.

- Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary

I also want . . . an open and public debate on RSE [Relationships and Sexuality Education], on a level playing field, with all the cards on the table.

- Nora Bennis, in a letter to The Irish Times

I know that women find it hard to hold their tongues.

- Dr Ian Paisley, silencing a woman reporter who interrupted him

I dreamt she came back. But she told me she had to go again. I used to hug her and rub her back, but I couldn't hug her in the dream.

- Josephine Pender, whose daughter, Fiona, disappeared over two years ago

I am gloriously, magnificently, totally wrong.

- Kevin Myers on the peace deal

It's not paranoia when they really are against you. I tell you that as a psychiatrist.

- Alliance leader Lord Alderdice, during a TV discussion on whether unionists were "paranoid" about Sinn Fein

I am not saying "absolutely never" with regard to that individual, but he has a long, long way to go.

- UUP leader David Trimble on sitting in the cabinet with Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams

They lie out sunning themselves like pedigree dogs while they should be on FAS employment schemes like everybody else.

Fine Gael councillor, John Flannery, on travellers

We'll never see a poor day again. I feel it in my bones. People will flock to Ballybunion as they have never done before. This is going to be mega.

- Local businessman Frank Quilter, on President Clinton's proposed trip to the town for a game of golf.