"There are those who talk as if Irishmen were justified in disobeying the law because the law comes to them in foreign garb. I see no reason why any colour should be given to the Ten Commandments ." Chief Secretary of Ireland in the 1880s

"Although paramilitary organisations have their own dynamic, and can for periods carry on despite what anyone thinks of them, in the end they rely on their supporting 'ethnic' populations, for members, logistical support, legitimation and - if nothing else - the turning of blind eyes."

"The IRA indulges in moral indignation when a rioter is struck with a plastic bullet. It constantly alleged that its members are 'roughed up' during interrogation. It cites the techniques of torture used on selected people at the outset of internment which caused the British government to be censured by the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. How can it make such condemnations when it treats human beings so cruelly, when it expresses such disdain for the sanctity of human life and sadistically prepares victims for the summary extinction of life?" Dirty War p. 362.

"Weapons from the 1980s shipment, split three ways between UVF, UDA and Ulster Resistance, were captured from the first two organisations, and the UDA drew on Resistance's allotment after its 1990 reorganisation. Fortnight, Jan '94.

"Between 1986 and 1987 PIRA had received three huge shipments of weapons from Libya, amounting to some 120 tonnes. These Libyan supplies were a direct result of American bombing of Tripoli using F1-11 aircraft based in England. A fourth shipment, comprising 150 tonnes, was seized by French authorities on 1 November 1987. (Libya had originally approached the more left-wing INLA .. but it did not appear to have the resources to absorb the amount of weapons that was on offer)." p. 133.

"Intelligence officers estimated that 75 per cent of the weapons seized in Northern Ireland had come from the United States and that nearly half of these had been brought over specifically for use in Northern Ireland."

Political spokesmen who are claimed to lead terrorist factions are nothing of the sort. In fact, they are actually the Northern Ireland football manager, speaking here after a 5-0 defeat. : "While I sympathise and identify with what the team is ultimately trying to achieve, I have no direct control over my players, their methods or objectives."