No newspaper would dare to publish such material if it concerned a living person.
- The Archdiocese of Dublin on the publication in the Sunday Times of allegations in a forthcoming book that the former archbishop of Dublin, Dr McQuaid, was a paedophile
There is neither a breakdown, nor is there yet a breakthrough.
- The Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson, after George Mitchell suspended his review of the Belfast Agreement
I have no doubt at all of their [Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness] commitment to finding a political way forward. I should be surprised if most participants in the Mitchell review did not share this view by now.
- Michael Oatley, former MI6 director, who has accused unionist politicians of using decommissioning as a pretext to disengage from the peace process
If you ask me my personal view, yes, I think he should consider his position.
- Liz O'Donnell, PDs, asked if John Ellis should resign as chairman of the Dail Committee on Agriculture and the Marine
Liz O'Donnell should mind her own business.
- Fianna Fail Wexford TD, John Browne
He was someone who always had the mickey taken out of him.
- A classmate of the German teenager who shot dead three others and himself
This is money that was raised and spent for entirely bona fide political progress. We sought no favours from the bank and we did not seek to benefit personally.
- Fergus Finlay, former Labour adviser, on the cancelling by Woodchester Bank of a £28,000 loan that was used to fund the unsuccessful European election campaign of Orla Guerin
We are at the foot of the mountain. Now we have to climb it.
- French coach Jean Claude Skrela before last Sunday's semi-final clash with New Zealand at Twickenham
At this point there is a feeling here that they are at the start of something. The past is there. They are not dwelling on the past . . . They are thinking more of building. That is very encouraging.
- Steve Gwynne-Vaughan, Care aid agency, of the East Timorese people
A certain complacency has set in at this time of great prosperity. Some people have become so selfish that they could not be bothered voting, and that has wider implications.
- The Tanaiste, Mary Harney, of the low turnout in the Dublin South Central by-election