All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms. All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means. - The IRA in a statement this week.
Even on the face of the statement, they have failed to explicitly declare an end to their multimillion-pound criminal activity and they have failed to provide the level of transparency that will be necessary to truly build confidence that the guns have gone in their entirety.
- The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, responds.
People are right to be sceptical because we have seen so many false dawns.
- Taoiseach Bertie Ahern gives the statement a cautious welcome.
September 11th for me was a wake-up call. Do you know what I think the problem is? That a lot of the world woke up for a short time and then turned over and went back to sleep.
- British prime minister Tony Blair.
Democracy is an enormous privilege, but it is also the terrorists' cover and protection.
- John Walker, former deputy chairman of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee.
It was an incredible risk to use a Taser on a suicide bomber because the Taser itself could set it [ a bomb] off.
- Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Ian Blair on the use of an electric stun gun by West Midlands police during the arrest of a suspect.
We want to avoid young people finding themselves, young women as I understand it, as young as 11, finding themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation.
- Tánaiste Mary Harney suggests that, in certain circumstances, the morning-after pill should be available for children as young as 11.
They tell you that the most dangerous emotion is hatred. Don't believe them, the most dangerous emotion is love.
- PD James (85), the crime novelist.
The euro has screwed everybody.
- Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on the single currency.
The shuttle is an amazing vehicle that can do things in space nothing else can do. With the work we are doing, we think we can get it in good shape to fly again.
- John Shannon, space shuttle flight operations manager, insists the spacecraft has a future.
The board . . . will have to decide whether this business can continue.
- VHI chief executive Vincent Sheridan says it is losing millions and could be insolvent within two years.
Allowing them to go on using the hospitality and the generosity of the British people to emanate from here, calling for killing and such, I think is wrong.
- Saudi ambassador to London Prince Turki al-Faisal criticises the British government for not exercising more control over Muslim extremists and for not deporting rogue preachers.
The fact that the cast is composed entirely of gentlemen I think is most apt, but we are not heavily pushing the gay aspect.
- Alan Stanford, who appears in the Abbey's all-male version of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
If we were solely concerned with facilitating public transport, we would never consider the refurbishment of O'Connell Street.
- Dublin City traffic manager Owen Keegan after reports that buses are taking up to 35 minutes to move through the street due to upgrading work.
I may come back next year - just to spite them.
- Alan Smith, a lawyer from Birmingham, Alabama, on his decision to continue his holiday at Sharm el-Sheikh, in Egypt, despite terrorist bombs.