Top 45 Martin McGuinness Quotes

Sinn Fein will not do Tory austerity.

Sinn Fein is committed to promoting and enhancing reconciliation, and in recent years, I and other members of my party have taken a number of significant initiatives aimed to advance this process.

What’s important is that, when you’re tested, you stand firm against the violent activities of those who would try to plunge our people back into the misery of the past.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

My ultimate dream would be for Derry City to become champions of an all-Ireland league in a united Ireland.

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

The position is clear – there is no ambiguity in Sinn Fein’s position. We, along with all the other parties, have signed up to a reduced rate of corporation tax of 12.5 % by 2018.

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

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.

Austerity is devastating these communities. The working poor, public sector workers, the disabled, and the vulnerable are the hardest hit by this bankrupt and ideologically driven policy.

I’m still an Irish republican; I absolutely believe in Irish unity and am working to achieve that. But over the course of 15 years or more, people like myself and others have been working to end the vicious cycle of conflict.

All I can do is to try and make the future better.

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

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

I don’t hate Peter Robinson, and I don’t think Peter Robinson hates me.

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.

War is terrible. There is nothing romantic about war.

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.

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.

While others have walked away from their responsibilities, the Sinn Fein team will work with the other ministers in partnership to deliver for all the people.

Let’s leave beside them in another pile all the injustices which exist in the northern state.

We have to govern by treating every single citizen equally.

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

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.

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.

There is not much point in establishing an organisation like the independent commission for information retrieval, or the other organisations that we agreed to, if we do not encourage people to participate.

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.

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.

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

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?’

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.

The spirt of 1916 is as relevant and inspiring today as it was a century ago.

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.

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.

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.

Our visits to the United States have brought huge benefits by helping attract foreign direct investment on a scale not previously seen in the north of Ireland.

In fact, I would defend to the death their right to express a different point of view.

If the British government is prepared to say that the Unionists will not have a veto over British government policy and that guns, vetoes and injustices will all be left outside the door, then there is no good reason why talks cannot take place in an appropriate atmosphere.

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

The last thing we want to see, given the success of the peace process, is the return of installations along the Irish border.