"I love our shared island, our shared Ireland and its core decency. I love it for its imagination and its celebration of the endless possibilities for our people."

"While the wider global environment is worrying, we are seeing some positive results in our economic affairs."

"The mandate I have received and for which I will speak with heart and head to implement over the next seven years had its four pillars - an inclusive citizenship, equality and participation and respect in a creative society creating an excellence in everything we Irish do."

"We need to discuss the basis of a new form of trust built on a meaningful form of citizenship appropriate for a republic."

"It is only hope which is real, and reality is a bitterness and a deceit."

"In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing."

"My greatest desire is that the hope that has overcome fear in my country will help vanquish it around the world."

"The TV business is like the produce section of the market. Today everything is fresh and glistening and firm. And tomorrow, when they find a bruise on you, they toss you out."