Dúirt Siad i 1997
We robbed the Irish people of their language and literature.. We
colonised Ireland with people loyal to the crown... We drove
thousands of Roman Catholics into exile and killed thousands of
men, women and children - and we invoke God as our justification.
We failed [150 years ago] to feed a starving people...leaving
millions to starve or emigrate... We demeaned the Irish people by
caricaturing them as stupid, drunken and feckless and when they
protested, we met violence with violence. That is why there is an
all-enduring sense of injustice.
From an article entitled `Britain owes Ireland an apology' by
Canon Nicholas Frayling, Anglican Rector of Liverpool. 29
January.
Get some kills.
British soldier on what his orders were on Bloody Sunday,
revealed in Sunday Business Post, 16 March.
Alan, a cabbie of 30 years, believes John Major made two big
mistakes: ``Allowing 400,000 people to lose their homes to the
building societies and then, when the IRA called a truce, not
sitting around a table with them.
The Observer, 6 April.
If I grew up the way these people have, if I'd lived their lives,
I'd be fighting the same fight.
Actor Brad Pitt, on his role as an IRA Volunteer in `The Devil's
Own'. 11 April.
To have a Labour leader who has whacked the unions, sworn the
gospel of privatisation, is being adopted by the Sun and who is
to be found swearing boy scout oaths in all City institutions
must gladden whatever it is that courses through old battleaxe's
veins.
Tom McGurk on Margaret Thatcher's reaction to Tony Blair. Sunday
Business Post, 20 April.
aberration... A blank cheque for the IRA and their activities.
Séamus Mallon on SF's victories in the Westminster elections. 2
May
The historic victories by the republican leadership in Mid-Ulster
and West Belfast have dramatically changed Northern Ireland's
political map.... The onward march of Sinn Féin marks a historic
turning point in the battle for hearts and minds within
nationalism.
William Graham, political correspondent, Irish News. 3 May
I've still got my thriving church and my gospel singing.
Willie McCrea, brave in defeat. 2 May
A `blip' was how David Trimble explained Sinn Féin's record vote
in the local government elections. As Winston Churchill might
have said: Some vote, some blip.
Irish Times reporter Gerry Moriarty 24 May
It must be acknowledged that the Sinn Féin election machine is
probably the best in these islands, and has exposed serious
organisational weaknesses within its main rival.
Irish News. 24 May
I think the SDLP should be put the following notices in all
national and local papers. To all SDLP members:
Would all those members who loaned their votes to Sinn Féin for
the last elections please return them to SDLP headquarters
immediately.
Letter in the Irish News. 3 June.
[There is] admiration for the manner in which he has been to the
forefront of a campaign to drive the drug pushers out. ``I don't
threaten anyone, but I won't stand back from anyone either.''
The Examiner on Sinn Féin's North Kerry candidate Martin Ferris.
3 June.
We have emboldened the republican tradition. We in this
constituency have faced censorship and state oppression but we
have held our heads up high and we have faced them down and today
we have had our victory.
Caoimhghín O Caoláin in his victory speech in Cootehill, Co
Cavan, after his election as a TD. 7 June
This is a remarkable breakthrough. Over the last two months we
have broken the mould of Irish politics and my greatest joy is
that our victories were all-Ireland victories. Our opponents talk
about trains leaving stations, but if we aren't on that train it
is going absolutely nowhere.
Martin McGuinness. 7 June
The ten month obscenity at Harryville was allowed to continue
despite the clear breach of law. Can you imagine what would
happen if a crowd behaved in a similar way outside a synagogue in
Britain on even one occasion?
Jack McDowell and John Robb. 2 July.
Sorry, Ms Mowlam, we just don't believe you.
Post-Drumcree Andersonstown News editorial on Mowlam's
explanation for the contents of the leaked NIO `game plan'
document on the Drumcree march. 12 July.
d they have also instinctively believed that the road to
equality is the road that leads out of the Union, they now stand
confused at the brink of oblivion.
Tom McGurk on the unionists, Sunday Business Post, 27 July.
I said to John Major, `How can I go to the republican leadership
and ask them to give up their guns when Fianna Fáil never handed
over any guns?'
Former 26 County Taoiseach Albert Reynolds speaking at the PJ
McGrory lecture in West Belfast. 7 August.
There'd be nobody in there but for a war that's been raging for
27 years in this country.
Former Dublin POW Gerry Burke on his release from Portlaoise
Prison.
The signs were taken down last night. The Union is doing what it
can to lessen the impact, but the simple message going out from
this decision is that Irish is not acceptable in Northern
Ireland. That is quite simply grotesque, and it is deeply
offensive.
Editorial in the Irish News on the removal of bilingual signs at
Queen's University. 19 August.
Of course there must be equal opportunity for everyone, but not
equality. You cannot expect the Irish minority in Northern
Ireland to be equal to the majority.
John Taylor. 22 August
It is a bleak report. It finds that a former Taoiseach, and a
close confidant of another Taoiseach, behaved in a manner that at
least opened the possibility of bribery and corruption and at
worst may have been criminal.
Editorial in the Irish Independent on the McCracken report, 26
August.
How do they propose to achieve lasting agreement in our community
if they are going to reject the current process?
John Hume on the attitude of the unionist parties. Saturday 30
August.
The ceasefire does not mean peace but the opportunity for peace.
Gerry Adams speaking in the US. 7 September.
The only people who consider the unionist population as British
are a minor rump of the Conservative Party and the unionists
themselves. While pride in your heritage is one thing, delusion
is another.
Hugh Sheehy writing in the Irish Times, 13 September.
Unionist leader David Trimble positioned UDP leader Gary
McMichael and the PUP's David Ervine on either side of him last
Wednesday (subliminal message: the pan-unionist front has
paramilitary muscle as well; remember Vanguard).
Ed Moloney, Sunday Tribune. 21 September.
It is because the principle of consent did not operate in 1920/21
that the peace settlement did not bring lasting peace. There was
no consent to the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 which
partitioned the island.
Professor Joe Lee. 21 September.
[If] Mary McAleese is voted in as head of state by us, then a
respectable nationalism will have survived even the worst the IRA
did. And that's the southern neo-unionists' ultimate nightmare.
Nuala O Faolain in the Irish Times. 20 October.
There is quite simply a massive military presence in South
Armagh, the like of which does not exist anywhere else in Ireland
or Britain or anywhere else in the Western world.
Seamus Mallon. 8 November
We put our view that all the hurt, division and grief that has
come from British involvement in our country has to end.
Gerry Adams after his meeting with Tony Blair. 11 December
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