This Week They Said

It has taken me four years, seven months and 18 days to get to this point through three court cases

It has taken me four years, seven months and 18 days to get to this point through three court cases. I was determined that justice and rightnesss was on my side. - Democratic Left leader, Proinsias De Rossa, after he was awarded £300,000 in his libel action over an article by Sunday Independent columnist Eamon Dunphy

It struck me at the time listening to it as being an advance speech to the jury ahead of Mr MacMenamin's [counsel for Independent Newspapers] address. - Mr Justice Carney to Mr Dunphy who is to appear in the High Court next Tuesday for alleged contempt of court aris- ing out of comments made on his Radio Ireland show

He was not on a compo kick. - Sean Ryan, counsel for Mr De Rossa

The verdict has profound implications for journalism in Ireland. - David Palmer, the manag- ing director of Independent Newspapers (Ireland)

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I assume she feels her future career in the UN takes precedence to the office which the people of Ireland conferred upon her. Shame on you, Mary. - Peter Redmond, in a letter to The Irish Times, on the Pres- ident's decision to retire early in order to take up her UN post

I don't fancy prison, but if that's the way it is, so be it. - Ronnie Biggs (67), the Great Train Robber living in Brazil, who could face extradition to Britain under a pending new bilateral treaty

Our main objection was not the concert itself. Everyone wants to listen to U2. The objection was at the IRFU running roughshod over the residents. - Lansdowne resident, Paul O'Reilly

I wanted to believe my son had died in his lover's arms and not by her hand. - Maureen Harvey, the mother of Lee, whose fiancee, Tracie Andrews, was jailed for life for his "road rage" murder

The murderers will remember this day for ever . . . The killing, the battering, the manner of his disposal, those were not the acts of sane individuals. - Father Finbar Glavin, speaking at the funeral of murder victim James Morgan killed in what was believed to be a sectarian attack

There were two large explosions and then I saw body parts flying in the air. - A witness to Wednesday's Hamas suicide bombing in Je- rusalem which killed 13 Israelis

I have no weapons . . . That is a matter for the IRA . . . The Ulster Unionist Party which Mr Trimble heads has more weapons than Sinn Fein. - The Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams

This is another case of a miscarriage of justice, which is a matter of regret to this court. - British Court of Appeal judges quashing the convictions of the Bridgewater Four for the 1978 murder of schoolboy Carl Bridgewater

I deserved to go to prison - but not for the murder. I was a bastard, I was a thief. Hands up, yes. - Jimmy Robinson, one of the four

I'll probably just tell him to get the lagers in. - Oasis star Noel Gallagher, asked what he'd say to Tony Blair at a showbusiness reception in No 10 last Wednesday to promote the arts in Britain

What I want to hear from Mr Ahern at the minute is a clear statement that the Irish Government will support the Mitchell compromise on the decommissioning of weapons: that is that decommissioning will take place during talks. - The Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble