It's hard to think of a 16-month child being anything other than a delight to be around.

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

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.

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

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.

Sinn Fein has demonstrated the ability to play a leadership role as part of a popular movement towards peace, equality and justice.

But I also hold the very strong view that republicans need to lead by example.