If you militarise a situation, you beg for an armed response.

It will always be a battle a day between those who want maximum change and those who want to maintain the status quo.

The unionists also for their part, want to minimise the potential for change, not only on the equality agenda but on the issues of sovereignty and ending the union.

The way forward is by building political support for republican and democratic objectives across Ireland and by winning support for these goals internationally.

Peace cannot be built on exclusion. That has been the price of the past 30 years.

There can be no such things as an Irish nationalist accepting the loyalist veto and partition. You cannot claim to be an Irish nationalist if you consent to an internal six county settlement and if you are willing to negotiate the state of Irish society with a foreign government.

Once water charges are in place they will only go up. This has been the history of all these charges