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4 December 2003 Edition

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Election Dúirt Siad

"Anyone who talks to Sinn Féin will be out of my party." - DUP leader Ian Paisley, speaking to journalists, 27 November.

"We have done business with Ian Paisley in the past on the agricultural committee in the Assembly. He didn't do a bad job." - Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams responds to DUP rhetoric, 27 November.

"The Agreement has now officially been put into a Sadducee's Grave, never to rise again." - DUP Deputy Leader Peter Robinson rants to journalists, leaving non-Bible bashers bewildered, 28 November (The Sadducees, his party leader later explains, were a Jewish priestly sect who refused to accept the Resurrection).

"The election has proved what everyone knew already but most denied, namely that most unionists have not yet learned to live with an Agreement which guarantees equality to nationalists, and that most nationalists have decided that Sinn Féin is the party which can best guarantee their aspirations." - Brian Feeney, columnist, Irish News, 28 November

"The price that any party who wants to have a devolved government must pay is the Good Friday Agreement. There is no better way forward." - Adams addresses a press conference, 27 November.

"What I now realise is that over the years I have clearly cared more for the unionist people than they have clearly shown for me today." - Defeated DUP candidate and backbench Tory MP for Basingstoke, the virulently anti-republican Andrew Hunter, speaking to UTV, 28 November. He also announced that he would be retiring from politics after the current Westminster term, a sad loss indeed.

"Yesterday Sinn Féin were earning plaudits from all sides for skilled vote management. But they were already moving on. Say Hello, Marylou, goodbye border." - Miriam Lord picks up on the much publicised presence of Sinn Féin's Dublin EU candidate, Marylou McDonald, in the Belfast Count centre. Irish Independent, 28 November.

"I am elected to see this job done and I am determined to see it is done properly. I have every intention of continuing as leader." - Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble responds to his critics, 29 November.

"We asked people to endorse the risks we were talking for the Peace Process. We stood on our record in the Assembly and the Executive." - Adams speaks at a press conference on 27 November.

"Mr Paisley said yesterday that North Antrim had spoken and for once I agree with him. While his thundering voice has been unchanged for years, the Sinn Féin mouse has finally roared and will be quiet no longer." - Sinn Féin newly-elected MLA for North Antrim, Philip McGuigan, tells it like it is to journalists, 28 November.

"Sinn Féin's Day" - Headline of the Irish Independent, 28 November.

"The political landscape has been radically altered. But it must not be forgotten that should an Assembly eventually be established, the majority of the MLAs within it will still be pro- and not anti-agreement. As Mr Ahern said, there can be no renegotiation of the deal." - editorial, Irish Independent, 29 November.

Each one of its (the DUP) leadership figures stated that its mandate must be recognised and accepted. That new reality however, is not something the DUP is prepared to accord to Sinn Féin. The issue now is whether or not the leadership, coming behind Dr Ian Paisley, has the vision and willingness to engage in genuine dialogue." - Editorial, Irish Times 29 November.

"In the coming days, both governments will invite the parties to submit their views in regard to the conduct and agenda of the four-year review of the Good Friday Agreement. This is a review of the operation of the agreement. Its fundamentals are not open to renegotiation." - Statement from Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern printed in the Irish Times, 29 November

"A potentially positive trend for the Peace Process, is Dr Paisley now seems to hate journalists even more than republicans. After a campaign in which he grabbed them by the lapels and threatened to shove things down their gullets, he relented yesterday only to the extent of suggesting that one TV anchorman undergo a "baptism of humility"." - Frank McNally, Irish Times 29 November.


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