A GREAT funeral . . .
- Dick Spring, on the trib- utes paid to him on his last day in the Dail as Labour leader
I wish him well in his decision to step down as party leader . . .
- The DL leader, Proinsias De Rossa
You are not contemplating that course of action yourself?
- Mr De Rossa's party col- league, Pat Rabbitte
No. And you should relax.
- Mr De Rossa
I will arise and go now . . . I think I will put it in John B. Keane's words: "When you are from Kerry, and when you are as ignorant as us, you have to be fierce clever."
- Mr Spring
He would say that wouldn't he, as Mandy Rice-Davies would say. Ruairi Quinn, on an assertion on behalf of Brendan Howlin that he'll win the Labour Party leadership contest
I am not giving you a warning. I am giving you information, and if I may say so, information is power. I am giving you information that because unionists are in a room in here people may have thought that progress is being made. It isn't.
- The Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, speaking to reporters at Stormont
I say with all humility: could anybody ever imagine me as a macho or as an aggressive person?
- The Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews, on being accused by the UUP's se- curity spokesman, Ken Maginnis, of having a "macho aggressive attitude"
I feel certain that the Taoiseach will want to express his relief at the very good news that our colleague, Deputy Healy-Rae, has returned to full health . . . I do not know if his regular driver, the Minister for Social Welfare [Mr Dermot Ahern] has been dispatched with fruit and flowers yet.
Pat Rabbitte, after Mr Healy-Rae collapsed on a train to Dublin last Tuesday
I woke up this morning and I was still alive, so I am pretty cheerful.
- Spike Milligan, who is 79
This is a serious issue . . . and yet you sit here with a face on you as if somehow or other writing letters is enough . . .
- Nora Owen (FG), to the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke, in demanding action on the French truckers' blockade
I would not stoop to discuss people's faces, really, or what they look like. That is their own business, how they view their own looks. I am quite happy with mine.
- Mrs O'Rourke
I have wrinkles, but I really value the face I have now. It shows my experience, my wisdom. I wish American men were more like the French, who realise that women age as beautifully as wine does.
- US film star Cybill Shepherd
It's a pity, but there you go. Up the workers and all that.
- Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, who has had to cancel French concerts because of the blockade
What a frightful man Tony Blair is, having all us show business types to drinks. Hasn't he got better things to do? He calls himself a socialist, yet the champagne was flowing as if Downing Street was an 80s wine bar. Is this what we are paying our taxes for?
- British comedian Harry Enfield
This was an attack of an uncontrolled rabid animal.
- Judge Cyril Kelly, after he jailed for seven years Michael Doyle, who caused multiple bite wounds to a taxi-driver's face
I'm going to write about the experience of the election and maybe say an awful lot more than I have done during the election.
- Adi Roche