Dúirt Siad...

Welcome to my home.

26-County Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern greets UN Secretary Kofi Annan at the state-owned Farmleigh House in Dublin. The Irish Times, Saturday 16 October.

A fairly frank admission that FF will not be able to rely on the support of the PDs alone to form a Government after the next election.

Pat Rabbitte says he is not surprised that Fianna Fáil would suggest a coalition with Sinn Féin. Does mean that Labour is no longer the swinging partner? The Irish Examiner, Tuesday 19 October.

I think that election will result in a victory for a Fine Gael-Labour coalition. But in the meantime there are many things that may usefully be done. Of these, the most important is to explore the possibility of Irish re-entry into the Commonwealth.

Conor Cruise O'Brien believes that Fianna Fáil made the ultimate mistake in acknowledging the possibility of a coalition with Sinn Féin, and that that mistake will see a government change in the 2007 election. But while we wait for that, he has a cunning plan... The Sunday Independent, 17 October.

People don't think I've got the brains to be clever.

David Beckham admits to the media that he deliberately fouled a fellow player last week and that it wasn't a 'stupid' mistake.

It takes an effort to imagine what 5,000 looks like. Think of a bus queue with ten people in it. Now think of ten times that number — a queue of 100 people. Now put 50 such queues end to end, and supply everyone in the queue with a sub-machine gun. Now you're beginning to get some idea what normality here will look like, when we'll be left with this happy-making figure of 5,000 British troops.

Jude Collins from the Irish News comments on the 'normality' Six Counties citizens will be left with when the British Government finally demilitarises. Monday, 18 October.

Being lectured by the President on fiscal responsibility is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order.

John Kerry criticises George Bush's economic policies during the third and final US Presidential debate.