“Like all best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.”

“What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass it is almost exactly 13 years since the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland and Northern Ireland voted in favour of the agreement signed on Good Friday 1998, paving the way for Northern Ireland to become the exciting and inspirational place that it is today.”

“The lessons from the peace process are clear whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.”

“In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognise how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945.”