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.

For good or ill, I'm a person of leadership. I do my best. I don't dodge responsibility.

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.

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.

For over 30 years, the IRA showed that the British government could not rule Ireland on its own terms.

I think the worst kind of grief is unacknowledged grief.

It's been a long time coming but the reality is that this process is at a crossroads.