2015 in pics and quotes - September

In our year in review series, we look back at September 2015.

• “She was my best friend. I admire how she handled this. She was a wonderful, brave, and a beautiful person and I love her”. — British actress Joan Collins, paying tribute to her sister, the novelist Jackie Collins, who died of breast cancer at the age of 77.
• “I regret very much, I have and I am continuing to pay the price personally as a result. In particular, I regret it for the society’s employees, shareholders, and borrowers who all became casualties of the crisis, and I regret it for the taxpayer and the State who have to fund the deficit.” — Michael Fingleton, former CEO of Irish Nationwide, giving evidence at the Oireachtas banking inquiry.
• “Put simply, these cars contained software that turns off emissions controls when driving normally and turns them on when the car is undergoing an emissions test.” — Cynthia Giles, an enforcement officer with the US Environment Protection Agency, accusing car manufacturer Volkswagen of using software to cheat emission tests allowing its cars to produce up to 40 times more pollution than allowed.
• “Is it OK if I’m Paul O’Connell’s mother?” — Shelagh O’Connell, mother of the Irish rugby captain on learning she had won tickets in an ‘Irish Examiner’ competition to the Rugby World Cup France-Ireland match in Cardiff.
• “The most exciting thing about the announcement today is that it would be possible to have life on Mars.” — Nasa scientist John Grunsfeld announcing that the agency had discovered flowing liquid water on the planet.
• “The Taoiseach’s spin in relation to the findings of this report is not credible and he must now consider his position.” — Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, in response to claims by Enda Kenny that a report into the retirement of Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan had vindicated him.