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30 March 2000 Edition

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Dúirt siad...

This is a kite being flown by the commissioner we have to take seriously. I don't believe the public want more guns on the streets. I don't believe they would feel safer because of it... quite the contrary in fact.

Irish Council for Civil Liberties spokesperson Donncha O'Connell on Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne's recent comments about routinely arming gardaí in the 26 Counties

 


One of the open wounds within nationalist and republican communities is the sense that there is a hierarchy of victims. I have raised the cases of 400 victims who have died as a direct result of killings by British crown forces and I have received no satisfactory answer to any of my representations. This refusal to deal with these cases has to be challenged.

Gerry Adams on nationalist vitims of British state violence

 


There are some within the bureaucracy of the trade union movement attempting to subtly demonise us. They should have the guts to do so publicly instead of hiding behind journalists and other so-called informed sources.

Peter Bunting of the National Bus and Railworkers' Union on the bus workers' three-day strike

 


Invariably, the game politicians are most adept at playing is scapegoating the media when they commit the cardinal sin of being found out after uttering racist comments on Travellers, immigrants or some other minority groups... Mr Cahill may have apologised for his comments, but the damage is done. Without question, Fianna Fáil should move to discipline the Kerry councillor. If necessary, they should expel him from the party and he should also resign as chairman of the Health Board.

Editorial in the Examiner on racist comments made by Kerry County Councillor Michael Cahill about Travellers

 


Again, the democratic hopes of the people of Ireland for a new political dispensation are forced to take second place to unionism's internal 30-year war. The likes of MPs Martin Smyth, Geoffrey Donaldson, Roy Beggs and William Ross are past their sell-by date and any society forced to take their views seriouly is doomed from the outset. Tragically, to them Britishness is no more than anti-Irishness, democracy a sectarian headcount in a gerrymandered statelet, culture the opportunity to demonise their neighbours and economics an annual blank cheque from Whitehall.

Sunday Business Post columnist Tom McGurk

 


We're standing by, ready for dialogue. We're not going to walk away, no matter who the leader of unionism is.

Sinn Féin's Mitchel McLaughlin after David Trimble survived his leadership challenge last Saturday

 


We almost have two unionist parties under one name. One will destroy the other.

The SDLP's Séamus Mallon after Saturday's Ulster Unionist Council vote

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