Quotes and Sayings about Irish
"The Irish Republican Army has kept every commitment made by its leadership."
- Gerry Adams
(Related: Leadership, Army, Commitment, Irish, Republican)
"But if republicans are to prevail, if the peace process is to be successfully concluded and Irish sovereignty and re-unification secured, then we have to set the agenda - no-one else is going to do that."
- Gerry Adams
(Related: Peace, Irish, Republicans)
"In this context the British and Irish governments will have to promote a new, imaginative and dynamic alternative in which both governments will share power in the north."
- Gerry Adams
(Related: Power, Irish, Will)
"On the Northern Ireland question, for instance, the British and Irish governments prohibit media contact with members of the IRA, but we have always gone ahead, believing in the right to information."
- Kate Adie
(Related: Information, Ireland, Irish, Media, Question, Right)
"I was for two years a pupil at the Model School in Fort street which was then conducted upon the Irish national system, and if any special religious instruction was given in connection with that system, I do not recollect it."
- Edmund Barton
(Related: Connection, Irish, Religious, School, Years)
"Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis."
- Brendan Behan
(Related: People, Irish, Nationality)
"It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody."
- Brendan Behan
(Related: Irish, Respect)
"If it was raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks."
- Brendan Behan
(Related: Irish)
"For a man to come right out and say he does not believe in the Old Testament, I think many Catholics across the nation as well as the world are offended by Bill O'Reilly claiming he's an Irish Catholic."
- Stephen Bennett
(Related: Irish, Man, Nation, Old, Right, World)
"I wrote a script. I actually enjoyed writing it more than acting. It's about the Irish rebellion of 1920, which is a fascinating period and place for me."
- Tom Berenger
(Related: Acting, Irish, Rebellion, Writing)
"I've had Irish skin from the time I was a young girl."
- Lara Flynn Boyle
(Related: Time, Irish, Skin)
"Being Irish was a big thing for me, particularly growing up in Chicago."
- Lara Flynn Boyle
(Related: Being, Chicago, Growing up, Irish)
"That's what the holidays are for - for one person to tell the stories and another to dispute them. Isn't that the Irish way?"
- Lara Flynn Boyle
(Related: Holidays, Irish)
"It is sufficient to say, what everybody knows to be true, that the Irish population is Catholic, and that the Protestants, whether of the Episcopalian or Presbyterian Church, or of both united, are a small minority of the Irish people."
- John Bright
(Related: People, Church, Irish, Minority, Population, United)
"As you know, I am neither Roman Catholic, Protestant Episcopalian, nor Presbyterian, nor am I an Irishman."
- John Bright
"I had to have some balls to be Irish Catholic in South London. Most of that time I spent fighting."
- Pierce Brosnan
(Related: Time, Fighting, Irish, London)
"I have a thing for red-haired Irish boys, as we know."
- Sandra Bullock
(Related: Boys, Irish)
"I suffer from Irish-Catholic guilt. Guilt is a good reality check. It keeps that 'do what makes you happy' thing in check."
- Edward Burns
(Related: Guilt, Irish, Reality)
"In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfying the Irish nation."
- Samuel Butler
(Related: People, Irish, Nation, Now, Old)
"Yancy is actually a Native-American name, but I'm Irish. Go figure."
- Yancy Butler
(Related: Irish, Name)
"My father was totally Irish, and so I went to Ireland once. I found it to be very much like New York, for it was a beautiful country, and both the women and men were good-looking."
- James Cagney
(Related: Men, Women, Father, Country, Ireland, Irish)
"There is not a single injustice in Northern Ireland that is worth the loss of a single British soldier or a single Irish citizen either."
- James Callaghan
(Related: Injustice, Ireland, Irish, Loss, Worth)
"My mother is Irish, my father is black and Venezuelan, and me - I'm tan, I guess."
- Mariah Carey
(Related: Mother, Father, Irish)
"Have you heard about the Irishman who reversed into a car boot sale and sold the engine?"
- Frank Carson
(Related: Car)
"The Irish job was something that had to be sorted out."
- Jack Charlton
(Related: Irish, Job)
"We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."
- Winston Churchill
(Related: English, Irish)
"Perhaps our Irish friends should not so completely turn their backs on their historical dishes, no matter how many jokes they might have to endure."
- Nick Clooney
(Related: Friends, Irish, Jokes)
"I printed a list of Irish names from the Internet and my husband, Dave, saw Finley on the list. I really liked it but didn't want to scare Dave off with my enthusiasm. So I used a little reverse psychology and let him think it was his idea."
- Holly Marie Combs
(Related: HusbIdea, Enthusiasm, Internet, Irish, Names, Psychology, Want)
"The Irish seem to have more fire about them than the Scots."
- Sean Connery
(Related: Fire, Irish)
"I grew up in a big Irish, Catholic family. My dad was a pretty rough guy. So one of my brothers left home when he was 15 and found his way to the gym. It gave me the opportunity to go and spend some time with him and work out in the gym."
- Gerry Cooney
(Related: Dad, Home, Time, Work, Family, Opportunity, Brothers, Irish, Pretty)
"We play our Irish songs a bit more loosely."
- Caroline Corr
(Related: Irish, Play, Songs)
"In Ireland, it's been like U2 and The Cranberries, which is rock, but you know they're Irish."
- Caroline Corr
(Related: Ireland, Irish)
"I think now, more than anytime I can remember, bands are sounding pretty similar whether they're English or American, from Manchester or London... or Leeds or Welsh or Irish."
- Graham Coxon
(Related: American, English, Irish, London, Now, Pretty)
"Theatre has no national identity. It is something for the world, whether it is Irish, English, or French."
- Cyril Cusack
(Related: English, Identity, Irish, Theatre, World)
"I was raised Irish Catholic, but I don't consider myself Irish Catholic: I consider myself me, an American."
- John Cusack
(Related: American, Irish)
"Now here I am playing a passionate young Irishman who would die for what he believes in."
- James D'arcy
(Related: Now)
"I went further and further back through the centuries to get a sense of perspective but now at least I understand why Irish history evokes such strong passions and emotions."
- James D'arcy
(Related: History, Emotions, Irish, Now, Perspective, Sense)
"In 1953 there were two ways for an Irish Catholic boy to impress his parents: become a priest or attend Notre Dame."
- Phil Donahue
(Related: Irish)
"To marry the Irish is to look for poverty."
- J. P. Donleavy
(Related: Irish, Poverty)
"I have the soul of a singer and do splendidly in the shower but the world will never hear it. Basically, I'm the only Irish person who can't carry a tune."
- Roma Downey
(Related: Soul, Irish, Will, World)
"Our Irish blunders are never blunders of the heart."
- Maria Edgeworth
(Related: Heart, Irish)
"Humor has historically been tied to the mores of the day. The Yellow Kid was predicated on what people thought was funny about the immigrant Irish. When you're different in a society, you're funny."
- Will Eisner
(Related: Funny, Humor, Society, Thought, People, Day, Irish)
"I'm just a true Irish boy at heart."
- Colin Farrell
(Related: Heart, Irish)
"Being Irish is very much a part of who I am. I take it everywhere with me."
- Colin Farrell
(Related: Being, Irish)
"I always thought the biggest failing of Americans was their lack of irony. They are very serious there! Naturally, there are exceptions... the Jewish, Italian, and Irish humor of the East Coast."
- Colin Firth
(Related: Humor, Thought, Americans, Irish, Irony)
"I'm proud of my Irish heritage and culture and this show will feature a lot of Irish dancing."
- Michael Flatley
(Related: Culture, Dancing, Irish, Will)
"It has to do with the fact that Ford, for all his greatness, is an Irish egomaniac, as anyone who knows him will say."
- Henry Fonda
(Related: Greatness, Fact, Irish, Will)
"I worked the drive-through at McDonald's and tried out different accents - Italian, Russian, Irish."
- James Franco
(Related: Irish)
"Well ironically my last three roles have all been a mother. One was a Canadian film where the baby was taken away because she is a drug addict, in Irish Jam I play a mother to a four year old. I think in the future I'll be able to handle the role with a lot more depth."
- Anna Friel
(Related: Mother, Baby, Film, Future, Irish, Old, Play)
"Irish Americans are no more Irish than Black Americans are Africans."
- Bob Geldof
(Related: Americans, Irish)
"It was impossible for me to believe that conditions in Europe could be worse than they were in the Polish section of Chicago, and in many Italian and Irish tenements, or that any workshops could be worse than some of those I had seen in our foreign quarters."
- Alice Hamilton
(Related: Chicago, Europe, Irish)
"My father's parents were Irish. Only a year before my father died, he and I went back to Ireland for a week to look at the old homestead."
- John C. Hawkes
(Related: Father, Ireland, Irish, Old, Parents)
"The Ireland I now inhabit is one that these Irish contemporaries have helped to imagine."
- Seamus Heaney
(Related: Ireland, Irish, Now)
"I'm half-Irish, half-Dutch, and I was born in Belgium. If I was a dog, I'd be in a hell of a mess!"
- Audrey Hepburn
(Related: Belgium, Hell)
"The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scotts as a joke, but the Scotts haven't seen the joke yet."
- Oliver Herford
(Related: Irish)
"My Irish passport makes me look like a chief of staff for the Provisional IRA."
- Jack Higgins
(Related: Irish)
"The basic policy of the British Government was that since the majority of people in Northern Ireland wished to remain in the United Kingdom, that was that. We asked what would happen if the majority wanted something else, if the majority wanted to see Irish unity."
- John Hume
(Related: Government, People, Policy, Ireland, Irish, Majority, United, Unity)
"They believed that Britain was in Ireland defending their own interests, therefore the Irish had the right to use violence to put them out. My argument was that that type of thinking was out of date."
- John Hume
(Related: Argument, Ireland, Irish, Right, Thinking, Violence)
"I - and there are hundreds of thousands of Irishmen who felt on this subject as I do - have always liked my Celtic countrymen and disliked the English nation; it is a national trait of character, and I cannot help it."
- Douglas Hyde
(Related: Character, English, Help, Nation)
"It is a most disgraceful shame the way in which Irishmen are brought up. They are ashamed of their language, institutions, and of everything Irish."
- Douglas Hyde
(Related: Irish, Language, Shame)
"Politics is the chloroform of the Irish people, or rather the hashish."
- Oliver St. John
(Related: Politics, People, Irish)
"I think the Irish woman was freed from slavery by bingo. They can go out now, dressed up, with their handbags and have a drink and play bingo. And they deserve it."
- John B. Keane
(Related: Irish, Now, Play, Slavery, Woman)
"At Leeds I've tried to concentrate on my club form, but you get caught up in all the World Cup fever once you come back to Ireland and see all the Irish boys again."
- Robbie Keane
(Related: Boys, Ireland, Irish, World)
"I grew up mostly with classical, big band, and a lot of Irish music - I really didn't start listening to rock and roll until I was maybe sixteen."
- Moira Kelly
(Related: Music, Irish, Listening)
"The best thanks we could offer those who went before and raised the Irish working class from their knees was to press forward with determination and enthusiasm towards the ultimate goal of their efforts, a Co-operative Commonwealth for Ireland."
- James Larkin
(Related: Determination, Enthusiasm, Goal, Class, Ireland, Irish, Press)
"No, men and women of the Irish race, we shall not fight for England. We shall fight for the destruction of the British Empire and the construction of an Irish republic."
- James Larkin
(Related: Men, Women, Destruction, EnglFight, Irish, Race)
"My parents were French and Irish and our family even has Spanish blood-and I do so love the United States and consider myself part American."
- Vivien Leigh
(Related: Family, Love, American, Blood, Irish, Parents, states, United)
"Every St. Patrick's Day every Irishman goes out to find another Irishman to make a speech to."
- Shane Leslie
(Related: Day, Speech)
"We have, therefore, directed the Irish Army authorities to have field hospitals established in County Donegal adjacent to Derry and at other points along the Border where they may be necessary."
- Jack Lynch
(Related: Army, Hospitals, Irish, May)
"The Irish Government can no longer stand by and see innocent people injured and perhaps worse."
- Jack Lynch
(Related: Government, People, Irish)
"I have good genes. My father is Danish and my mother is Irish and Native American. They both have good skin."
- Virginia Madsen
(Related: Mother, Father, American, Irish, Skin)
"The Irish are the only men who know how to cry for the dirty polluted blood of all the world."
- Norman Mailer
(Related: Men, Blood, Irish, World)
"Irishmen are not reserved, and the company appeared dying to be intimately acquainted."
- William Hamilton Maxwell
(Related: Company, Dying)
"But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible."
- Anne McCaffrey
(Related: Love, Ireland, Irish, Living, Speech, Will, Words)
"I live again the days and evenings of my long career. I dream at night of operas and concerts in which I have had my share of success. Now like the old Irish minstrel, I have hung up my harp because my songs are all sung."
- John McCormack
(Related: Success, Dream, Career, Irish, Night, Now, Old, Songs)
"Well I think that's probably one of a few, where I grew up in the City of New York, it's got a lot of energy, my parents are Irish-American so there was a bit of yelling going on in my house but it seemed normal."
- John McEnroe
(Related: Energy, Irish, Parents)
"The way I see it is that all the ol' guff about being Irish is a kind of nonsense. I mean, I couldn't be anything else no matter what I tried to be. I couldn't be Chinese or Japanese."
- John McGahern
(Related: Being, Irish, Nonsense)
"Everything that we inherit, the rain, the skies, the speech, and anybody who works in the English language in Ireland knows that there's the dead ghost of Gaelic in the language we use and listen to and that those things will reflect our Irish identity."
- John McGahern
(Related: English, Identity, Ireland, Irish, Language, Rain, Speech, Will)
"Amongst Women concentrated on the family, and the new book concentrates on a small community. The dominant units in Irish society are the family and the locality. The idea was that the whole world would grow out from that small space."
- John McGahern
(Related: Family, Society, Women, Idea, Community, Irish, Space, World)
"Ninety percent I'll spend on good times, women and Irish Whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."
- Tug McGraw
(Related: Women, Irish, Waste)
"Let everyone leave all the guns - British guns and Irish guns - outside the door."
- Martin McGuinness
(Related: Irish)
"The glory of the old Irish nation, which in our hour will grow young and strong again. Should we fail, the country will not be worth more than it is now. The sword of famine is less sparing than the bayonet of the soldier."
- Thomas F. Meagher
(Related: Country, Famine, Glory, Irish, Nation, Now, Old, Will, Worth)
"Violence and irrationality were so long and thoroughly cultivated among the Irish, and so perfectly ingrained into their nature, that modern civilization has as yet been unable to extract the virus."
- Thomas Mellon
(Related: Nature, Civilization, Irish, Violence)
"My first thought when I came here was that I understood why there are so many great Irish writers - because there is something mystical in the air. There's always this cloudy, moody sky and it's challenging."
- Christopher Meloni
(Related: Thought, First, Irish, Sky, Writers)
"I had great faith in Irish actors, that they'd be hip to the whole theatre thing, and they are. I had no illusions of coming over here as some kind of big shot. It's been a learning experience for me too."
- Christopher Meloni
(Related: Experience, Faith, Actors, Irish, Learning, Theatre)
"As they say, one thing led to another, and, ultimately, the British and Irish governments asked me to serve as chairman of the peace negotiations, which ironically began six years ago this week."
- George J. Mitchell
(Related: Peace, Irish, Years)
"I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that."
- Van Morrison
(Related: Music, Irish)
"I think being a woman is like being Irish. Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the same."
- Iris Murdoch
(Related: Being, Irish, Woman)
"The economy in Ireland has been rampaging ahead for the last 15 years. Barring an international, political or natural catastrophe, things can only get better for the Irish."
- Eddie Murphy
(Related: Economy, Ireland, Irish, Years)
"But let's just say, I'm Irish. I grew up in the 1950s. Religion had a very tight iron fist."
- Liam Neeson
(Related: Religion, Irish)
"The Irish and British, they love satire, it's a large part of the culture."
- Ben Nicholson
(Related: Love, Culture, Irish, Satire)
"I'm Irish. I think about death all the time."
- Jack Nicholson
(Related: Death, Time, Irish)
"The Irish do not want anyone to wish them well; they want everyone to wish their enemies ill."
- Harold Nicolson
(Related: Enemies, Irish, Want)
"I'm an Irish Catholic and I have a long iceberg of guilt."
- Edna O'Brien
(Related: Guilt, Irish)
"The majority of the members of the Irish parliament are professional politicians, in the sense that otherwise they would not be given jobs minding mice at crossroads."
- Flann O'Brien
(Related: Irish, Jobs, Majority, Parliament, Politicians, Sense)
"My Irish derivation has nothing to do with me. Why should it?"
- Carroll O'Connor
(Related: Irish, Nothing)
"Above all else, deep in my soul, I'm a tough Irishwoman."
- Maureen O'Hara
(Related: Soul, Deep)
"An Englishmen thinks seated; a Frenchmen standing; an American pacing, an Irishman, afterwards."
- Austin O'Malley
(Related: American)
"The gun is not out of Irish politics."
- Ian Paisley
(Related: Politics, Irish)
"Rain is also very difficult to film, particularly in Ireland because it's quite fine, so fine that the Irish don't even acknowledge that it exists."
- Alan Parker
(Related: Film, Ireland, Irish, Rain)
"I had that stubborn streak, the Irish in me I guess."
- Gregory Peck
(Related: Irish)
"Oh, the Irish were building the railroads down through Mexico, through Chihuahua. They finished the railroads when they finished out in the West Coast, and they went down and put the trains into Mexico."
- Anthony Quinn
(Related: Building, Irish)
"The Butcher Boy is a very great novel indeed and a very important Irish novel. The ambiguity of that is, he's writing a book about an appalling situation and he does it in a hilarious way."
- Stephen Rea
(Related: Ambiguity, Irish, Writing)
"Angel was the first Irish feature film. Neil's first movie and my first movie."
- Stephen Rea
(Related: Film, First, Irish)
"Well, we know that eighteen years after that solemn declaration it was disregarded, and the Irish Parliament, which lasted for five hundred years, was destroyed by the Act of Union. Gentlemen, the Act of Union was carried by force and fraud, by treachery and falsehood."
- John Edward Redmond
(Related: Act, Falsehood, Force, Fraud, Gentlemen, Irish, Parliament, Treachery, Years)
"They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn't want to be broken."
- Bobby Sands
(Related: Nothing, Spirit, Want)
"They won't break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon."
- Bobby Sands
(Related: People, Heart, Dawn, Day, Desire, Freedom, Ireland, Irish, Moon, Will)
"Irish people are educated not only about artistry but local history."
- Fiona Shaw
(Related: History, People, Irish)
"To be honest I live among the English and have always found them to be very honest in their business dealings. They are noble, hard-working and anxious to do the right thing. But joy eludes them, they lack the joy that the Irish have."
- Fiona Shaw
(Related: Business, English, Irish, Joy, Right)
"There's something about the Irish that is remarkable."
- Fiona Shaw
(Related: Irish, Remarkable)
"A lot of Irish people perform. They perform in drawing rooms. They sing songs and they play piano."
- Fiona Shaw
(Related: People, Irish, Play, Songs)
"Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy."
- Fiona Shaw
(Related: Happiness, Irish, Joy, Nothing)
"People do think I'm Jewish. But we're Irish Catholic. My father had a brogue."
- Martin Short
(Related: Father, People, Irish)
"Who can doubt that between the English and the French, between the Scotch and the Irish, there are differences of character which have profoundly affected and still affect the course of history?"
- Goldwin Smith
(Related: History, Character, Doubt, English, Irish)
"Me and Johnny Rotten have been talking about doing a movie of his book, No Irish, No Dogs, No Blacks. We have a script, so hopefully that's going to happen at some point in our careers."
- Penelope Spheeris
(Related: Careers, Dogs, Irish, Talking)
"The British Government and the Irish Government have accepted very clearly the Mitchell Report."
- Dick Spring
(Related: Government, Irish)
"Our fifty principal cities contain 39.3 per cent of our entire German population, and 45.8 per cent of the Irish. Our ten larger cities only nine per cent of the entire population, but 23 per cent of the foreign."
- Josiah Strong
(Related: Cities, Irish, Population)
"There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting."
- John Millington Synge
(Related: Irish, Language)
"If this humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain."
- William Howard Taft
(Related: Humor, People, American, Irish, Race, Safety)
"There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment."
- Paul Theroux
(Related: Development, African, Being, Irish)
"Finally, Colin Farrell showed up on my doorstep, only he wasn't Colin Farrell - he was just this Irish kid who had read the script and wanted to do it."
- Robert Towne
(Related: Irish)
"You think the Welsh are friendly, but the Irish are fabulous."
- Bonnie Tyler
(Related: Irish)
"I have been interested in Irish traditional music for the past few years."
- Nobuo Uematsu
(Related: Music, Irish, Past, Years)
"You think that religion is a thing that is there to help you and to see you through life, and then you wake up one morning and find the entire Irish situation, the civil war that's based on religion."
- Midge Ure
(Related: Religion, War, Life, Help, Irish)
"I have drawn inspiration from the Marine Corps, the Jewish struggle in Palestine and Israel, and the Irish."
- Leon Uris
(Related: Inspiration, Irish, Israel, Palestine, Struggle)
"I come from a long line of staunch Irish Catholics."
- Robert Vaughn
(Related: Irish)
"Sometimes the archaism of the language when it's spoken is why we are all in love with the Irish today."
- Diane Wakoski
(Related: Love, Irish, Language, Today)
"I loved Jack Ford. I got him in his later days, and he was a total tyrant and a total autocrat and an Irish drunk. But I had a great time."
- Richard Widmark
(Related: Time, Irish)
"If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized."
- Oscar Wilde
(Related: Society, English, Irish, Talk)
"Irish is the prominent nationality in the family, but beyond that, I really don't know. I see a lot of artistic or creative influence coming through on my mother's side."
- William Wiley
(Related: Family, Mother, Influence, Irish, Nationality)
"Irish poets, learn your trade, sing whatever is well made, scorn the sort now growing up all out of shape from toe to top."
- William Butler Yeats
(Related: Growing up, Irish, Now, Poets, Trade)
"Cast your mind on other days that we in coming days may be still the indomitable Irishry."
- William Butler Yeats
(Related: May, Mind)
"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy."
- William Butler Yeats
(Related: Being, Irish, Joy, Sense, Tragedy)