Martin McGuinness Quotes

Sinn Fein is the fastest growing party on the island of Ireland.

There are no military solutions - dialogue and diplomacy are the only guarantee of lasting peace.

Tony Blair has made a good contribution to the cause of peace in Ireland. He has made a great effort to understand it. He has great empathy with the need to resolve the conflict.

Commemorations can stimulate debate, which will ultimately lead to a greater understanding of the events of our 'through-other' history and to shape a better future.

I want to work with Peter Robinson as first minister in a positive, constructive way and leave the elections to the electorate.

We don't believe that winning elections and winning any amount of votes will win freedom in Ireland. At the end of the day, it will be the cutting edge of the IRA which will bring freedom.

Obviously everybody is accountable for their own actions, and everybody has to make judgments based on their own conscience as to whether or not they believe what they were doing is right or wrong.

The most important thing to say is that Sinn Fein isn't going back to anything. We are a party on the move.

Whenever people reach out the hand of friendship towards me, I am not going to refuse that hand.

In my view, a united Ireland is inevitable, and it is certainly more likely than a voluntary coalition which doesn't include Sinn Fein.

The fact is that a car used by Gerry Adams and myself during the course of the Mitchell review was bugged by elements within British military intelligence.

We've had a very consistent position down the years. Sinn Fein is not in favour of abortion, and we resisted any attempt to bring the British 1967 Abortion Act to the north.

I do not think we can dismiss the contribution that people make, particularly when it is a very dangerous occupation to be involved in building support for the peace process.

I was proud to be a member of the IRA. I am still 40 years on proud that I was a member of the IRA. I am not going to be a hypocrite and sit here and say something different.

I never panic when I get a wasp at my ear. As soon as you strike out, they'll sting you. So just stay cool.

Let everyone leave all the guns - British guns and Irish guns - outside the door.

I will work with whoever is leader of the DUP.

I have passed, I hope, many tests over the course of the last 20-odd years in relation to the peace process and intend to continue to work forward in a very sensible and reasoned way with political colleagues in the Executive.

The sheer scale of what the Tories are attempting to do is staggering. But Sinn Fein will not agree to this ideologically driven austerity agenda.

Within loyalism and the UVF, there are clearly people who are not just aggravated by the issue around flags or parades. They're aggravated by me and Sinn Fein being in government. They're opposed to the political institutions - there's an inability of a minority within loyalism to accept the concept of equality.

There are some discussions taking place in the United Arab Emirates about the prospects of a long-haul flight into Belfast.

We have to govern by treating every single citizen equally.

It was traumatic for my children to see the British army en masse coming into our home and searching the house. I recall on one occasion, when our home was raided, my youngest son was standing at the top of the stairs - he would probably have been only three years of age - in his pyjamas. The soldiers came up the stairs, and he peed himself.

As a young man on the streets of Derry, I saw Ian Paisley as an immortal opponent of everything to do with equality, justice, fairness, and respect for Irishness.

I would describe myself as a practising Catholic. This is only my opinion; others may disagree.

I don't know what caused my tinnitus, but I started to become aware of a very low ringing noise in my right ear, which is now constantly there.

As anyone who has tinnitus knows, it's not something that you can ignore, and you have to deal with it on a daily basis.

The war against British rule must continue until freedom is achieved.

The British government needs to bring its system in Ireland under control.

I believe a united Ireland is inevitable. I have never put a date on it.

There are many things we can do with Scotland and, indeed, with others which would be hugely beneficial to both Scotland and to Ireland, so I'm absolutely up for all of that.

Freedom can be gained only at the point of an IRA rifle, and I apologize to no one for saying that we support the freedom fighters of the IRA.

But the fact is that the vast majority of Republicans support the Sinn Fein leadership.

When I went to the all-Ireland final - Kerry against Dublin - I couldn't get away for an hour and a half with people coming up and wishing me all the best. Not one of them said, 'Martin, when did you leave the IRA?' But every one of them knew I was in the IRA at one stage.

The task ahead of us will be extremely challenging as the Tory party continue with their austerity agenda and as we continue to resolve the issues of the past and build unity, reconciliation, and equality.

If there is a vote in Britain to leave the E.U. there is a democratic imperative to provide Irish citizens with the right to vote in a border poll to end partition and retain a role in the E.U.

The Good Friday Agreement was an incredible breakthrough. But it's my view that the Hillsborough Agreement could see politics in the north come of age, and see us all move forwards on the basis of equality and partnership.

That's healthy and good for us that there are people who are prepared to question what we are doing.

Let us walk into the conference room as equals and not second class citizens.

A lot of Labour people are telling me Labour is in poor shape.

I'm not going to be reduced to the position of being the implementer of Tory cuts in the North.

As a lad growing up in the Fifties and Sixties, I played both Gaelic football and soccer and loved them both.

War is terrible. There is nothing romantic about war.

In 2016, let us all join the Rising, and the only final message is this very clear: Up the Rebels. Up a sovereign and independent Irish republic.

Let me put it like this: I am not prepared to officiate over on behalf of the British government what I think is a disastrous strategy which will impact on some of the most vulnerable and poorest people within our society.

I think that what is happening now in terms of the Brexit vote does represent a serious undermining of the Good Friday Agreement.

I am very sure of the ground I stand on. I am also very sure that it is the path shared by republicans across this island genuinely interested in building a new agreed Ireland: republicans who put Ireland before ego, criminality, and self-gain.

I think that Peter Mandelson, particularly in relation to the issue of policing, made a huge mess of it. He allowed himself to be manipulated by the securocrats within the British establishment.

Obviously, Ian Paisley and I were regarded as very bitter opponents. When we decided in March 2007 to govern together, both of us understood that we weren't going to change our views but that we had to work with one another if we were to end the conflict and move forward.

You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people in the north who said to me, 'When did you leave the IRA?'

I will not be silenced or deterred.

I haven't done anything that I'm ashamed of.

It is amazing that you now have a bus company in Ballymena producing world class buses for Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Las Vegas.

I am opposed to abortion on demand, and I am opposed to the 1967 Act in Britain being transferred to the north.

My parents were very religious. My mother came from Co Donegal to work in the shirt factory in Derry when she met my father.

Along with that ongoing process Sinn Fein took a decision to establish a peace commission which had the responsibility to travel around the country to receive submissions from the general public, also our opponents.

The reality is that the people that we represent are no longer going to be second-class citizens in their own country.

Well I think it has always been a mistake to reduce the peace process in Ireland to a decommissioning process.

Sinn Fein is an Irish Republican party. We stood in the Assembly election to deliver a prosperous economy and jobs, to protect and enhance public services, support those most in need, and to progress Irish Unity.

I come from a very sporting family and played many sports as a lad.

World War One is an important part of Ireland's multi-layered history during which tens of thousands Irish people lost their lives.

Our ability to make a decision about the declaration is hampered by the British government being reluctant to give us the clarification which we require.

I would have felt ashamed if I had not been part of the resistance and part of fighting back against the forces of the state.

As a former member of the IRA, I accept all the responsibilities that are due to me. But in terms of the individual circumstances, I don't comment on that.

Remembering the loss of those Irishmen from all parts of the island who were sent to their deaths in the imperialist slaughter of the First World War is crucial to understanding our history. It is also important to recognise the special significance in which the Battle of the Somme and the First World War is held.

Sinn Fein is the only political party on this island working to end that fracture in their nation and to achieving the Republic set out in the proclamation.