ThisWeek TheySaid

Patriots today are people who are at least as fully aware of the needs of their community as they are of their own individual…

Patriots today are people who are at least as fully aware of the needs of their community as they are of their own individual rights. - The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, says citizens can hold true to the values of 1916 by contributing meaningfully to their communities.

Anything I could say about this would be superfluous. On offer today is the National Anthem of Ireland. - Auctioneer Fonsie Mealy as the original draft of Amhrán Na bhFiann goes under the hammer.

A detective driving a family saloon car, armed with a .38 special and a bullet-proof sports coat, is now expected to deal with criminals, sometimes high on drugs, armed with modern high-calibre weapons, and driving the top-of-the-range, high-powered cars. - Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors general secretary Joe Dirwan says poor strategic planning by Garda management is letting officers down.

The Irish housing market has become a hothouse. Prices cannot continue to rise at two to three times the average rise in wage incomes without eventually killing off a large number of potential first-time buyers. - John Beggs, AIB chief economist.

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We are told that Home Rule would have been conceded after the first World War. That may well be true, but it does not follow that Home Rule would then have led peacefully onwards to Irish independence. That is frankly most unlikely. - Former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald says that in the long run, Ireland benefited from the 1916 Rising and the independence movement that followed.

Lord, we have lost our sense of sin. Today a slick campaign of propaganda is spreading an inane apologia of evil, a senseless cult of Satan, a mindless desire for transgression, a dishonest and frivolous freedom, exalting impulsiveness, immorality and selfishness as if they were new heights of sophistication. - From the Vatican's Good Friday meditations, written by Archbishop Angelo Comastri, vicar general at Vatican City.

Quite frankly, decommissioning is not a word that we use in our vocabulary. It is not on our agenda.- A UVF spokesman says the organisation is not about to give up its guns.

We repudiate this activity and denounce those involved. - In its Easter message, the IRA criticises republicans who participate in criminal activity.

I hate to pay taxes just so they can bomb people. - Seymour Hersh, the veteran US reporter who exposed the mistreatment at Abu Ghraib prison.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq is a campaign of imperial military conquest and falls into the category of criminal acts. - Flight Lieut Malcolm Kendall-Smith, an RAF doctor who refused to serve in Iraq because he believed the war to be illegal. A military court sentenced him to eight months in prison.

Maybe beauty is the final step to end violence and preach world peace. - Newly crowned Miss Iraq Tamar Goregi. Death threats from Islamic militants forced her into hiding shortly afterwards.

It is time to start respecting our own money. - Yevgeny Velikhov, chairman of Russia's Public Chamber, which is contemplating banning the use of the word "dollar" in official speech in order to boost the prestige of the rouble.

Our answer to those who are angry about Iran obtaining the full nuclear cycle is one phrase, we say: Be angry and die of this anger. - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, as the West frets over Tehran's accelerating nuclear programme.