These propositions, heads of agreement, were presented to the talks table from a barrel of unionist and loyalist guns. - Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness
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
London even stopped passing sensitive intelligence to the White House because it often seemed to find its way to the IRA. - Former US ambassador to the UK Raymond Seitz, who in a forthcoming book lays bare the celebrated Anglo-American row which followed the grant- ing of Mr Adams's first US visa in 1994 by the Clinton White House
The charitable view of his [Mr Seitz's] remarks is that they expose his ignorance of the situation in Northern Ireland . . . and it is quite clear he still doesn't understand. - The SDLP leader, John Hume
I just think people should stop writing books. - British government press spokesman, asked about Mr Seitz's claims
The powers of darkness tried to sully Fergal's character, but you know and I know that he was an innocent young man, whose only crime was that he fell into the hands of criminals. - Father Seamus O'Connell, at the funeral of LVF murder victim, 28-year-old Fergal McCusker, referring to the group's claim he was a republican
Some IRA fellows got me into a corner and said "See those two over there," - they pointed to Gerry Conlon and one of the Birmingham Six - "They're innocent. We know" - Cardinal Basil Hume, recalling a visit to Wormwood Scrubs prison one Christmas Day
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
There are some things for which tickets should not be sold. And the grave of a young woman who died in a car crash is one of them. - Labour peer Lord Hattersley, on Earl Spencer's plans for sightseers to visit the scene of Diana's grave
I'm faced with the kind of bill for soldiers, in terms of compensation for deafness, that hasn't happened in any other country in the world, even those that were at war. - The Minister for Defence, Michael Smith
