THE people I have known either for 10 years, 20 years or 30 years from business, gambling, holidays, men and women of all types of reputation, I intend to be seen with them, go out with them, and the only thing I'd be worried about is that some of my friends would be afraid to invite me on holidays in the future.
- The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, asked if he had spent his holiday at business- man Ulick McEvaddy's villa in France
The various countries of this rotten capitalist system, with its unemployment, its wars, and making money, I hope it will come to an end.
- Briton Melita Norwood (87), after it emerged she spied for the KGB for 40 years
I went all over the world. I stayed in the best hotels, visited the best beaches and had access to beautiful women, champagne and caviar. No, I don't regret a minute of it.
- John Symonds, former Scot- land Yard detective, who also spied for the KGB
Melvyn, Lord Bragg himself, a peer of the realm, came all the way to Manhattan to see me, a little gobshite from Limerick.
- The writer Frank McCourt, soon to be the subject of a South Bank Show special
They pose a very significant threat . . . I'm talking about the coalition of the so-called "Real IRA", Continuity IRA and some members of the INLA.
- The RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan
By saying it will engage in a consultative period, the [Sinn Fein] leadership are preparing their grassroots to accept this [Patten] report. But no republican, indeed no real nationalist, could ever accept it.
- Martin Galvin, former Noraid publicity director
If the Minister for Finance believes that the purpose of the meeting is to give us a dressing-down on pay, he would be better off cancelling the meeting now. The Minister appears to believe that social partnership is about nothing more than pay restraint.
- Peter Cassells, ICTU general secretary, before meeting the Government last Monday in an effort to salvage Partnership 2000
Everybody has felt the pity and the terror of the tragedy. But I think we have also experienced something more revealing, which is a feeling of being called upon, a feeling of being in some way answerable.
- Seamus Heaney, Nobel laureate, of East Timor
We have no food, we have no water, we have no clothes, no blankets - it is cold here. All of our houses were burned. We have nothing.
Armandina Gusmao, sister of East Timor's Independence leader, who is hiding from pro- Jakarta militias
Anyone who walks down any Irish street in clerical dress today soon knows the difference from 10 to 15 years ago. There has, to put it politely, been a lowering of esteem for all clergy, and it is often expressed very impolitely indeed.
- The new Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, the Very Rev Robert MacCarthy
I want to stay active. I've learned a lot along the road of life. If my expertise can be of use to me and others, then it is available, and so be it. If no one wants it, so be it. I don't mind.
- Padraig Flynn, who has retired as EU Commissioner
Used to be that people thought they could sit the things out. Then you get to know what they mean when they talk about the size of them, this one being three times bigger than the last one and all. People learned.
- South Carolina's Jack Ferguson, of Hurricane Floyd