Fergus Finlay: An egotistical belief in one’s own importance will never end well

Anyone who loves him- or herself more than anyone else will invariably end up alone

Seán Quinn: Rather than take responsibility, he retreated into self-pity and delusion.

My mother was not a woman to get over a slight. It didn’t matter whether it was real or imagined, or who had committed the transgression. Forgiveness didn’t come easy to her, if at all.

Especially if it was one of her children that needed to be pardoned. She had an expression that she would use if any of us went looking for forgiveness for having done something wrong.