Ireland

"When I was a young boy in primary school, we were taught that post-independence Ireland was poor but uniquely virtuous. Today, we are taught that it was poor and uniquely wicked. There is an attention-seeking particularism to a lot of Irish writing that can get in the way of understanding the country: we were never as different as people have made out. Those traditional rural values that we once correctly celebrated can still be found in agricultural communities around the world; the Magdalene Laundries that we correctly condemn have their counterparts elsewhere as well. We are a nation of navel-gazing drama queens – and perhaps not even that makes us unique."

"Maybe the penny will finally drop ... that the best case for a united Ireland is a State that proves itself capable of making the island one of the best places in the world, not just to invest, but to live and work. What might attract a corporate board in California and a skilled worker from Spain just might do the same for a Protestant in Ballymena."

"The women of Ireland have been voting and fighting on all kinds of issues. There's no question but that there would be a literature coming out of their experiences."

"Ireland unfree shall never be at peace."

"I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand, And he said, "How's poor ould Ireland, and how does she stand?" "She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen, For they're hanging men and women for the Wearin' o' the Green."

"The American people know how profoundly Ireland has affected our national heritage and our growth into a world power."

"Gladstone…spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the question."

"’Twas the dream of a God, And the mould of His hand, That you shook ’neath His stroke, That you trembled and broke To this beautiful land. ...He made you all fair, You in purple and gold, You in silver and green, Till no eye that has seen Without love can behold."

"One day at a luncheon in London, [Dutch journalist ] was seated next to a man prominent in British politics. "You are a Hollander, aren't you?" the distinguished knight asked him. Raemaekers replied proudly that he was. "Ah, then between us we can solve the Irish problem," the M. P. went on. "I am Irish. You are Holland. We will put all the Irish in Holland and all the Hollanders in Ireland. In one year the Hollanders will have been so industrious that they will have made Ireland a garden and the Irish will have been so lazy that they will have neglected to care for the dykes and will all have been drowned. ""

"The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence, and to common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants, and the fatuity of idiots."

"There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin, * * * * * * But the day star attracted his eyes' sad devotion, For it rose o'er his own native isle of the ocean, Where once in the fire of his youthful emotion He sang the bold anthem of Erin-go-bragh."

"There's a dear little plant that grows in our isle, 'Twas St. Patrick himself sure that set it; And the sun on his labor with pleasure did smile, And with dew from his eye often wet it. It thrives through the bog, through the brake, and the mireland; And he called it the dear little shamrock of Ireland— The sweet little shamrock, the dear little shamrock, The sweet little, green little, shamrock of Ireland!"

"Dear Erin, how sweetly thy green bosom rises! An emerald set in the ring of the sea. Each blade of thy meadows my faithful heart prizes, Thou queen of the west, the world's cushla ma chree."

"When Erin first rose from the dark-swelling flood, God blessed the green island, he saw it was good. The Emerald of Europe, it sparkled and shone In the ring of this world, the most precious stone."

"Arm of Erin, prove strong, but be gentle as brave, And, uplifted to strike, still be ready to save; Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile The cause or the men of the Emerald Isle."

"Every Irishman has a potatoe in his head."

"The dust of some is Irish earth, Among their own they rest."

"Old Dublin City there is no doubtin' Bates every city upon the say. 'Tis there you'd hear O'Connell spoutin' And Lady Morgan making tay. For 'tis the capital of the finest nation, With charmin' pisintry upon a fruitful sod, Fightin' like devils for conciliation, And hatin' each other for the Love of God."

"The groves of Blarney They look so charming Down by the purling Of sweet, silent brooks."

"There is a stone there, That whoever kisses, Oh! he never misses To grow eloquent. 'Tis he may clamber To a lady's chamber Or become a member Of Parliament."

"When law can stop the blades of grass from growing as they grow; And when the leaves in Summer-time their colour dare not show; Then will I change the colour too, I wear in my caubeen; But till that day, plaze God, I'll stick to wearin' o' the Green."

"For dear is the Emerald Isle of the ocean, Whose daughters are fair as the foam of the wave, Whose sons unaccustom'd to rebel commotion, Tho' joyous, are sober—tho' peaceful, are brave."

"O, love is the soul of a true Irishman; He loves all that's lovely, loves all that he can, With his sprig of shillelagh and shamrock so green."

"Ich am of Irlaunde, Ant of the holy londe Of Irlande. Gode sire, pray ich the, For of saynte charité, Come ant daunce wyth me In Irlaunde."

"The most remarkable aspect of Ireland in the 1920s and 1930s is not that there is evidence for authoritarianism, clericalism or illiberal attitudes, but that it survived as a democracy at all. Virtually every other secessionist state that emerged after the First World War ceased to be democratic by 1939 and in most cases this was a result of nationalists or the military taking power."

"We are bound to lose Ireland in consequence of years of cruelty, stupidity and misgovernment and I would rather lose her as a friend than a foe."

"The changes brought about in the late ’80s and early ’90s only went so far. A self-congratulatory lay culture of unreflective Catholicism was easily transformed into a self-congratulatory culture of unreflective semi-liberalism."

"I must say there is to me nothing more extraordinary than the determination of the Irish people to proclaim to the world that they are a conquered race. I have been always surprised that a people gifted with so much genius, so much sentiment, such winning qualities should be—I am sure they will pardon me saying it; my remark is an abstract and not a personal one—should be so deficient in self-respect. I deny that the Irish people are conquered as they are proud to tell us; I deny that they have any ground for that pride... I deny that the Irish are an ancient nation that have been conquered more than all ancient nations have been. I deny that the Irish have been conquered more than, or even as often, as the English. You never hear of an Englishman going about and boasting of his subjection. He boasts sometimes of having come over with William the Conqueror or rather of his ancestors having done so. The Irish have been conquered by the Normans and so have we, and in modern times I will not deny that Oliver Cromwell conquered Ireland, but it was after he had conquered England. William III could not have succeeded in conquering Ireland if he had not previously conquered England."

"Thus you have a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and in addition the weakest executive in the world. That is the Irish Question."

"The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit – a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. The home, in short, of a people living the life that God desires that men should live. With the tidings that make such an Ireland possible, St. Patrick came to our ancestors fifteen hundred years ago promising happiness here no less than happiness hereafter. It was the pursuit of such an Ireland that later made our country worthy to be called the island of saints and scholars. It was the idea of such an Ireland - happy, vigorous, spiritual - that fired the imagination of our poets; that made successive generations of patriotic men give their lives to win religious and political liberty; and that will urge men in our own and future generations to die, if need be, so that these liberties may be preserved."

"It wasn’t the gays who trashed marriage (in Ireland); it was the straights."

"For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad."

"The Irish, in many ways, are a great people—but they carry a grudge to absurd lengths. They have far too long a memory for their own wrongs."

"There is one thing that the people of Ireland know how to do and that is to survive."

"Only those without a drop of Celtic blood believe there’s any magic in the Irish."

"War tore the guts out of the British empire, weakening it in resources and morale. The first major loss was Ireland."

"Stony seaboard, far and foreign, Stony hills poured over space, Stony outcrop of the Burren, Stones in every fertile place, Little fields with boulders dotted, Grey-stone shoulders saffron-spotted, Stone-walled cabins thatched with reeds, Where a Stone Age people breeds The last of Europe's stone age race."

"Ireland is not a large country. A competing guidebook states that "you could drop its entire area into Lake Superior." We certainly do not wish to start rumors, but sometimes we wonder whether these competing guidebooks are on some kind of narcotics. A quick glance on the map will show you that Ireland is in fact nowhere near Lake Superior, which is located in Minnesota. So if your vacation plans include dropping Ireland into a major body of water, a much better choice, in our opinion, would be the Irish Sea, which is far more conveniently located, although during the peak season we do recommend that you have reservations. Of course there is more to Ireland than water sports. There is also the Irish people, a warm and friendly lot who are constantly saying things like "Begorrah!" Alcohol will do this to people."

"the Irish people I have met from Ireland certainly have a mentality which I recognize as being part of my own. (Would you describe that mentality?) JB: The same kind of bitterness, the same kind of rage, the same kind of determination which finally has to become even extremely irrational, to be out from under the heel of an occupying power.... Yes, I think Northern Ireland would have to be classified as a colony."