I think the worst kind of grief is unacknowledged grief.

We can be revisionist, and that's a good thing to be at times, but we shouldn't airbrush our history, so we can only make judgments in the objective conditions of that time.

You can only judge anything that happened in the times, in the times that that happened.

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

Sinn Fein has productively taken the example of South Africa and, as we develop the peace process, we continue to use examples from South Africa.

In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle. I did so because there was no alternative for those who would not bend the knee, or turn a blind eye to oppression, or for those who wanted a national republic.

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