Gerry Adams Quotes

Making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war.

Armed struggle is a necessary and morally correct form of resistance in the Six Counties against a government whose presence is rejected by the vast majority of the Irish people There are those who tell us that the British government will not be moved by armed struggle. As has been said before, the history of Ireland and of British colonial involvement throughout the world tells us that they will not be moved by anything else.

It might or might not be right to kill, but sometimes it is necessary.

It will always be a battle a day between those who want maximum change and those who want to maintain the status quo.

There can be no such things as an Irish nationalist accepting the loyalist veto and partition. You cannot claim to be an Irish nationalist if you consent to an internal six county settlement and if you are willing to negotiate the state of Irish society with a foreign government.

If you militarise a situation, you beg for an armed response.

The days of humiliation, of second-class citizens and of inequality are over and gone forever.

No Irish nationalist could support any treaty which institutionalizes British government claims to a part of Irish national territory. Indeed, the term - 'constitutional nationalism'- used by Mr.Mallon (SDLP) and his colleagues to describe their political philosophy is a contradiction in terms. The only constitutional nationalist in Ireland today is Sean McBride. He puts his nationalism within a framework of Irish constitutionality. Mr. Mallon, however, puts his within the framework of British constitutionality. Irish nationalism within British constitutionality is a contradiction in terms.

One man's transparency is another's humiliation.

For over 30 years, the IRA showed that the British government could not rule Ireland on its own terms.

In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle. I did so because there was no alternative for those who would not bend the knee, or turn a blind eye to oppression, or for those who wanted a national republic.

Peace cannot be built on exclusion. That has been the price of the past 30 years.

Hugging trees has a calming effect on me. I'm talking about enormous trees that will be there when we are all dead and gone. I've hugged trees in every part of this little island.

Once water charges are in place they will only go up. This has been the history of all these charges

When others stood idly by, you and your families gave your all, in defence of a risen people and in pursuit of Irish freedom and unity.

I stopped buying Sunday papers about 15 years ago, because you'd buy handfuls of them, and what you got, because the hard news comes from so many other channels, was opinion pieces. You're better off spending the money on a good novel.

A real possibility now exists for a Government that is not led by either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil

I think the worst kind of grief is unacknowledged grief.

I nominate the Reverend Ian Paisley for the position of First Minister of northern Ireland

You can only judge anything that happened in the times, in the times that that happened.

Sinn Fein has demonstrated the ability to play a leadership role as part of a popular movement towards peace, equality and justice.

The way forward is by building political support for republican and democratic objectives across Ireland and by winning support for these goals internationally.

But I also hold the very strong view that republicans need to lead by example.

Sinn Fein has the potential and capacity to become the vehicle for the attainment of republican objectives.

Republican patience with how unionism deals with the political institutions, and with key issues like equality and human rights, will be tested because, obviously, there will be a battle a day on these matters. So lets face up to all of this with our eyes wide open.