The week that was in words...
Does he see himself as the person to oversee the governance of a modern healthcare institution? – Prof Tom O'Dowd poses a pointed question for Lyndon MacCann, chairman of Tallaght hospital, where 57,921 X-rays were not fully examined and some 3,500 GP referral letters were unopened
Where were the consultants who have not carried out their work? . . . We're paying them. We want to know what have they been doing. – Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
Only death will stop me here that I am so close to the target! – Colleen Renee LaRose, aka Jihad Jane, alleged leader of the Cork/Waterford plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks
We've been working for Middle East peace for 60 years but we will not give up until there is peace. Now I have to go and have lunch. – Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt during a break at an EU meeting in Cordoba, Spain
Dear Mother, Today some happy news. Lorenz telegraphed me that the British expeditions have verified the deflection of light by the sun . . . So sorry to hear that you are not feeling well. – Albert Einstein's 1919 letter to his mother, found with the 46 pages of the original draft of his Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity, now on show in a new exhibition in Berlin
[Nelson] Mandela let us down. He agreed to a bad deal for the blacks . . . Economically, we are still on the outside. The economy is very much white. It has a few token blacks, but so many who gave their life in the struggle have died unrewarded . . . This name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family . . . The people of Soweto are still with me. Look what they make him do. The great Mandela. He has no control or say any more. Mandela is now a corporate foundation. He is wheeled out globally to collect the money and he is content doing that. The ANC have effectively sidelined him, but they keep him as a figurehead for the sake of appearance . . . That Bishop Tutu who turned [the Truth and Reconciliation Commission] all into a religious circus came here. I told him that he and his other like-minded cretins were only sitting here because of our struggle and me. – Winnie Madikizela-Mandela gets things off her chest