It has perhaps always been the case that the waging of peace is the hardest form of leadership of all.

Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendour that are gone but a declaration of our hopes for the future, and for the years I may, by God's Grace and Mercy, be given to reign and serve you as your Queen.

Grief is the price we pay for love.

Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.

Madam President, speaking here in Dublin Castle it is impossible to ignore the weight of history, as it was yesterday when you and I laid wreaths at the Garden of Remembrance.

To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.

[Before each of numerous portrait sittings:] Now then, with teeth or without?