As in Athens, the right to participate was restricted to men, just as it was also in all later democracies and republics until the twentieth century.

Democracy, it appears, is a bit chancy. But its chances also depend on what we do ourselves.

Most of us readily take things for granted that at an earlier time remained to be discovered.

The future of that ancient chamber remains in considerable doubt.

We've got enormous potential, phenomenal potential on our doorstep, which requires politics that makes that work, and that's what we try to show here in Ireland: that while there's a lot of pain, the reward at the end of this is career opportunities, prosperity, and brighter days for everybody.

We in the Labour party know better than most that opposition is the easy part. What's more difficult is governing and setting out an agenda for government.

It's not up to one individual to decide, 'I'm going to dictate the outcome of what's going to happen legislatively.' That is not a democracy; it's an atrocity.

My view is that good community management is like having good municipal government: You should be able to have dissenting opinions and so on, freedom of speech, but your grandmother should also be able to walk down the street at night without having to worry about getting mugged.