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

I nominate the Reverend Ian Paisley for the position of First Minister of northern Ireland

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.

When I wrote 'Before The Dawn,' I made it quite clear that there are lots of people involved in my life who I can't talk about simply because I'd put them at risk.

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

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

I was leaving the Belfast court, where I had been called to answer a very flimsy charge, later dismissed. You're relatively safe in such areas in the Irish community, but to go to downtown Belfast for me is dangerous. My appearance in court had been well advertised by the police. I think it was too much of a coincidence that the people who shot me were just passing by.