An Phoblacht/Republican News   ·   Thursday October 26 1995

Dúirt Siad

Just now [the Framework Document] is in limbo, and the question is, what happens if it comes back? Because the loonies of Stormont Castle are just as loony as ever. They're not fit to live in a normal, decent political society, which is why they're running the dictatorship of direct rule.... When the loonies try and bring it back, we do not know what decision the government will take, but this time they have no excuses. There will be no consent to those proposals.

- OUP leader David Trimble to David Sharrock of The Guardian, 21 October.

The organs of Tory opinion are moving into formation. Indeed, across the Right, the air is filled with the sound of forces being realigned for the battle to come. At their head stands John Major, pretending to lead from the front when he is more like an ideological captive being used as a human shield.

- Iain McWhirter, Observer 22 October.

John Bruton's door should always be open to politicians from this part of Ireland... Clearly Mr Bruton's relationship with the British government is important. But a rift with Sinn Féin is a greater threat to the peace process than a difference of opinion with London. The present Irish administration has been sending too many unclear signals. It is time Mr Bruton imposed some discipline on his northern policy

- Irish News editorial, 25 October, on the refusal last week of John Bruton to meet John Hume and Gerry Adams.