It will be difficult to let go but it is going to happen sooner rather than later in my case.

I find the growing intervention by the football authorities in strictly footballing matters a rather worrying trend.

That kind of natural understanding doesn't develop naturally

I enjoyed seven years at Wimbledon and there were high and low points.

I never felt I would get to the stage where I would to have to actively think about retiring from international football as I always thought it would pass me by.

I wouldn't even mention myself in the same breath as someone like big Paul.

Arsenal's defence will be a worry going forward

I never felt I would be part of the international scene for 50 caps in my wildest dreams.

I am hugely proud to have played for Ireland.

A difficult decision for the referee's assistant. I wouldn't beat him up over it.

She did not arrive at Annandale without taking the chisel to herself more than once, without rubbing up against a few boys to smooth an edge or two.

Nigeria has moved into low-middle-income, but their north is very poor, and the health care systems there have broken down.

No city in the world, not even Athens or Rome, ever played as great a role in the life of a nation for so long a time, as Jerusalem has done in the life of the Jewish people.

The knowledge of everything knowable is not yet wisdom

The great epochs of our life come when we gain the courage to rechristen our evil as what is best in us.

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone.

Never point at anything beige and call it cool.

The divine chemistry works in the subsoil.

So I got into growing grapes, not realizing that there was a heck of a lot more to it than meets the eye.

I pick my favourite quotations and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.