This Week They Said

I want the IRA to tell the truth about my mother instead of telling lies and saying she was an informer

I want the IRA to tell the truth about my mother instead of telling lies and saying she was an informer. I think they owe the family that.- Michael McConville at the wake of his mother Jean McConville, 31 years after she was murdered by the IRA.

I think we need a little help with this memory problem.

- Justice Paul Carney as key witnesses in a Central Criminal Court murder trial develop collective amnesia.

I honestly think there is no stopping the flow. Building dams is only slowing it down. We are looking at an absolute torrent of bog and mud.

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- Martin Collins, spokesman for the Derrybrien Landslide Action Group, south Galway.

I'm sad more than angry right now. We had 40 gardaí involved for the last 67 hours in the search, a lot of whom weren't surviving on much sleep.

- Garda Insp Karl Heller, as claims that a baby had been abandoned in Ballymun, north Dublin, turned out to be a hoax.

It's not a matter of breaking the law, it's the law trying to break you.

- Vintners' Federation chief executive Tadhg O'Sullivan says forcing publicans to police a smoking ban in pubs would put them at risk of violence.

Money, position, power means nothing. You come in with your character and you leave with your character. You have nothing else.

- Ousted UK Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith.

The guys looked fine for people trapped in a mine for six days.

- Alexander Smetalin, one of the rescuers who helped to save coalminers trapped in a shaft in southern Russia.

It brought me closer to God.

- Iran Brown, a victim of the Washington sniper attacks last year, describes the feeling of being shot.

There is no point in saying wonderful when it's not wonderful.

- Explorer Ranulph Fiennes is feeling the effects of the gruelling challenge he set himself to complete seven marathons in seven days. He had just finished his fourth race.

She is a little beauty and we couldn't be prouder.

- Paul McCartney and wife Heather announce the arrival of baby Beatrice.

We never invaded the Korean Peninsula by force. They sought our help in a merger.

- Shintaro Ishihara, controversial governor of Tokyo, reassesses Japan's brutal occupation of Korea in the early 20th century.

Americans think terrorists are evil people who have hijacked a great religion.

- President Bush hosts a White House dinner for US Muslim leaders.

With all due respect to William and Harry, they have a life of privilege and luxury . . . I don't, and I have to look after my family.

- Paul Burrell, former royal butler and author of a controversial book on his life with the Princess of Wales.

Can you say I'm a little bitter with men? Just a little.

- Singer Britney Spears.

This is beyond belief. It's like a war zone.

- Outgoing governor of California Gray Davis, as bushfires ravage the south of the state.

I heard a thump, and when I went in she was hitting David over the head, pummelling him with her fists.

- Bodyguard Imad Handi describes Liza Minnelli beating her husband David Guest.