“The engagements I had with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles were about reaching out and showing respect to the unionist people. I also recognised that when someone like her makes acts of reconciliation as she did do at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin, she is 100% behind the peace process.”

“War is terrible. There is nothing romantic about war.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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