Today`s decision by the IRA to move into a new peaceful mode is historic and represents a courageous and confident initiative. It is truly momentous and is a defining point in the search for a lasting peace with justice.
Gerry Adams
Why should the rest of the people of Northern Ireland be held hostage by the IRA? Why should we not be allowed to proceed with the democratic process?
Peter Robinson
What`s crucial is that the IRA produce a credible statement that paramilitary and criminality activity is a thing of the past. That they are committed to a future which is exclusively peaceful and democratic.
Peter Hain
The big missing part of the jig-saw is to get the assembly back up and running here in Northern Ireland, to get shared government back in business, that is my objective, and we await the IRA statement to see if this will trigger a new dawn.
Peter Hain
On the Northern Ireland question, for instance, the British and Irish governments prohibit media contact with members of the IRA, but we have always gone ahead, believing in the right to information.
Kate Adie
It`s time that Gerry Adams free himself from the IRA. We cannot in Western countries have a political party that has its own private army, particularly one that`s been associated with criminality and violence,
Ted Kennedy
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.
Gerry Adams
Everyone I have spoken with so far recognises the need for the IRA to respond positively and every has said sooner is better than later and I think there is some concern if it does continue to delay much longer that the situation isn`t going to remain the...
Amber Klingler
But that citizen`s perception was also at one with the truth in recognizing that the very brutality of the means by which the IRA were pursuing change was destructive of the trust upon which new possibilities would have to be based.
Andrea Koncz
At that time, the army leadership said the implementation of this agreement would allow everyone, including the IRA, to take its political objectives forward by peaceful and democratic means.
Gerry Adams
At a time when the insurgents are saying that time is working against them, my Democratic colleagues are introducing a measure to set a timetable for withdrawal in Iraq that will undercut the momentum that the insurgents themselves say we have built in Ir...
Allenstown Capt. Shaun Mulholland