"If you believe soccer, rugby, Gaelic football, ladies football and camogie and others sports can all be played on the same pitch then you have to bea bit of a nitwit." - Bertie Ahern, a few months before asking the GAA to be nitwits.
"We wish the Government well, but nobody should be in any doubt that we intend to see Eircom Park in place by 2002". - Pat Quigley, then FAI president, speaking in March 2000. Oooh, how he must wish.
"Every other banana republic in the world has their own national stadium." - Former sports minister Dr Jim McDaid. Every "other"? A Freudian slip?
"A Ceausescu-era Olympic campus on a single site." - Progressive Democrat Michael McDowell speaking about Stadium Ireland during the general election campaign.
"As a nation, not only can we afford this undertaking - we cannot afford to let this opportunity slip." - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, speaking in January 2000. God be with the days.
"If Sports Campus Ireland was abandoned . . . I honestly believe that (it) would become a source of the deepest regret for everyone in years to come, because if this project goes away, there is never likely to be an opportunity to resurrect it." - Paddy Teahon, chairman of Sports Campus Ireland, writing in The Irish Times in April 2001.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a chance, because we can afford it now, to build something for our kids and their kids. For the first time in our history, we are in a position to put an infrastructure in place to make us part of the "big picture" in world sport. What a tragedy it would be if we were to turn our backs on that opportunity." - Paddy Teahon, again.
"Some politicians have difficulty knowing the difference between a stadium and a campus, but we can forgive them that as a lot of them might not have seen a sporting event in the 50 years they have been on this planet." - Bertie Ahern responds to critics (i.e., McDowell) of his Stadium Ireland dream.
"For me, it was always a question of how you spend taxpayers' money, and given the tight budgetary situation, the emphasis has to be on health, education and infrastructure." - Tanaiste Mary Harney.
"The Government has decided that, in current circumstances, it is not in a position to provide any Exchequer funding, in the medium term, for a National Stadium." - Tuesday's Government statement on Stadium Ireland.
"One of the greatest U-turns in political history." - Fine Gael sports spokesman Jimmy Deenihan.
"We do not mind where the money comes from to build the stadium, and if the Taoiseach is confident that the money can be secured then this needn't be a big factor at all." - Simon Lyons, campaign director for the joint bid by Ireland and Scotland to stage the European Championship in 2008, insisting that the lack of funding from the Government need not be a major blow to the bid. (see below)
"Whistling past the graveyard." - Labour's Pat Rabbitte on the proposal that the private sector provide the funding to build Stadium Ireland. (see above)
"Suggestions from unattributed sources in the media that Croke Park will be made available for soccer and rugby games in the next few years are unfounded and mischievous." - A GAA spokesman, as quoted by the Scotsman.
