John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

We hope the atrocities have ended. It is understandable that there would be scepticism in certain quarters although we might not agree with it. We await the report of the monitoring body to ascertain whether criminality and the other forms of atrocity committed by violent people are now discontinued for good. This will obviously be a key element in the advancement of the process.

When Senator Ryan spoke about clothes, I was reminded of an anecdote concerning former Senator Gordon Wilson. The Cathaoirleach will recall that when the Senator was a Member, he recounted that he spent many hours in his draper's shop in Enniskillen unpicking labels on underclothing which stated "Made in Great Britain" so when people from a certain tradition came into his shop they would not be forced to buy clothing manufactured in Great Britain. I say this by way of light-hearted relief. It serves as a microcosm of the circumstances in Northern Ireland.

I was really taken aback yesterday evening when I heard a very good reporter, Tommy Gorman, reporting from the National Ploughing Championships. He said Mr. Adams was mobbed like Mahatma Gandhi. To find any comparator as remote from Mr. Adams as Mahatma Gandhi took some doing because the latter brought an empire to its knees by non-violent methods.