Mary McAleese
On Ireland
We are still a state but not yet a nation state. That title we reserve for the time when boundaries of nation and state conicide. . .We desire to be a nation, a nation state. We believe that given the abject failure of the colonial model and the devolved government model in Northern Ireland, that the model of self determination, not selfish determination, or sectarian determination, could secure the future of our children and of their inheritors. Not a nation state dominated by triumphalism, or narrow bitter prejudices, but a place proud of its diversity and searching for its own integrity. - April 1986 at the opening session of Scoil an Phiarsaigh (the Pearse School) at St Enda's, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin.
On living in the South or the North I feel like an exile at heart - the call of the North is always there. - June 1984 (while living in the South).
When people down here [in the South] tell me they know Belfast, I just laugh. I left because I couldn't stand the oppression any more, the hypocrisy and the danger. - February 1984.
On the Presidency
I sense a mood among the people that they want a president who can speak to them from above politics. It will look at an Ireland where people are not pigeon-holed any longer. - After her selection as Fianna Fail candidate
I do not believe that the Presidency is the place for religious crusades. You are not in the presidency to enforce your views, never mind your religion, on any other human being. - Before her selection.
On Charles Haughey
Yes, I do admire the man and my husband Martin is a relentless Charlie fan. I admire in him, predominantly, his staying power and the ability not to cave in in the face of the relentless pursuit of him by the media and indeed from within his own party. - June 1984.
On family planning
I don't want to ram [the] rhythm [method] down people's throats. - June 1984.
On women priests
At a time when numbers seeking admission to the priestly life are dwindling to a negligible trickle, when convents and monasteries are closing down or eking out a recycled living as conference centres, it seems an extraordinary act of ingratitude to say to those of the female gender who would wish to play a role in the future of the Church as pastors. . .that their services are not required. - Quoted in the early 1990s.
On parental responsibilities
Perhaps it is now time to concentrate [in bringing up children] on the Christian part to renew the face of an Earth which has grown cold and selfish and frightening, an Earth where Christ sits in a corner, forgotten and ignored, just waiting for someone to invite Him in. - August 1994 at the Knock Shrine annual Novena.
On being a Roman Catholic
I hate the idea which some people have that if you're a Catholic, you can't think for yourself, that you think exactly what the bishops tell you. I see the Catholic Church as something which is moving and dynamic. - February 1984.
The vision thing?
I see a profoundly complex society fractured along fault lines, some of which are new, others centuries old. A society which needs an embrace capable of drawing all towards a reconciling centre. . .A Presidency of embrace. . .of a caring outreach. . .I mean the word "embrace" in the widest possible sense. . .
Adi Roche
On the election
This is going to be a fun campaign! - After her nomination on Tuesday.
On a potential conflict of heart versus position
I don't think our Army has any nuclear weapons that we know of. I would always see our Army in that tremendous role of being peace-makers, peacekeepers. - On being president and commander-in-chief of the Defence Forces (and simultaneously a strong supporter of CND).
On coping with post-Soviet bureaucracy
Imagine coming so far only to be blocked by paper-pushing officials but we will not leave. This aid will be delivered and we will be here to see to that. I don't want to know about the politics of it. This is about real people, people who are dying because of radiation sickness. - May 1997 on the problems of delivering help to the victims of Chernobyl in Belarus.
On the Aras
The Aras will be there as a real safe haven . . .
On giving
It seems to me that Irish generosity is linked in a very definite way to our past history, and that explains why, per capita, we give more than almost any other nation. We have a folk memory of suffering, it is in our psyche, and there is an urge in us to respond, which we do in a most caring way. - On the eve of a trip to Chernobyl in October 1995 with a convoy of 15 ambulances laden with hospital equipment and drugs.
On disappointment
Sometimes, when I'm really angry with someone who has broken a promise to us, I write their name on the sole of each shoe before I start, then literally walk out those negative feelings. - On preparing for her six-mile morning walk between Cork and Rathcooney and coping with disappointment.
On her (by someone else)
Really, Adrienne Roche, your priorities are upside down. - Sister Clare, Reverend Mother at the Presentation Sisters school in Clonmel, to 14-year-old Adi Roche (as remembered by Ms Roche).
The vision thing?
I see myself as the white part of the Tricolour, which is the offering of peace . . . I will be a people's president . . . I would be the Third House of the Oireachtas . . .
