Unfortunately, it was out that I was to speak at five o'clock. Obviously, the statement was designed for that. It says it for itself . . . There is no need for me to say any more.
- The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, reacting to the news, given to him midway through his Dail speech on the North, that the IRA interlocutor had broken off contact with Gen. de Chastelain's decommissioning body
I believe that the IRA has set out, in a calculated way, to humiliate our Taoiseach, the elected leader of the Irish people. And that is not acceptable.
- The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton
Those who seek a military victory in this way need to understand that this cannot and will not happen.
- The IRA, after it claimed the British government and the UUP "have no desire to deal with the issue of arms except on their own terms"
I believe with a passion that there is no alternative to either this peace process or something which is the spitting image of it, and I doubt whether anyone will come forward with better ideas about policing than we managed to come up with.
- Mr Chris Patten, chairman of the Independent Commission for policing in Northern Ireland
We certainly have no notion of being part of any review. Because there is no basis for a review.
- Mr Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein president
This is a review, whether you call it that or not.
- Mr David Trimble, after talks at Downing Street with Mr Tony Blair and Mr Ahern
We cannot make progress in a political vacuum . . . The British establishment seems to think that Sinn Fein can just absorb all these blows. We cannot. I can only work within the possibilities of human and political endeavour.
- Mr Adams
The wrapping paper is barely off this exciting and hope-filled gift to the children of the 21st century and suddenly its fragility is starkly evident.
- The President, Mrs McAleese, on the peace process
Had we from Yugoslavia done something like this, we probably would have been bombed.
- Mr Branislav Blazic, Serbia's Environment Minister, on the cyanide, originating in Romania, that has leaked into the Danube
I don't share the view that ignorance is bliss. I believe knowledge is power.
- Judge Kevin Haugh, defending his decision to issue questionnaires to jurors in the forthcoming trial of Mr Charles Haughey
Where people are dependent on public transport and on companies that have a monopoly on its provision, striking should be outlawed.
- Mr Simon Nugent, chief executive of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, talking about the Dublin Bus dispute
This man was going to kill me.
- The policeman who shot dead Diarmuid O'Neill, IRA suspect, in a raid at a London hotel in 1996, at Mr O'Neill's inquest
Every city, including Dublin, should have a permanent monument to ugliness as a grim reminder of what has to be avoided in the future.
- Prof F.X. Martin, historian and Wood Quay activist, who has died, speaking after the opening of the new Dublin Civic Offices