Being Irish Quotes

I'm Irish and very proud of being Irish, but as an actor, your extraction should be secondary, really. You should be able to embody whatever character it is, wherever the character comes from. That's always been important, for me. I'm an actor who's Irish, not an Irish actor.

Being Irish and a citizen of the world, has made me truly appreciate Irish culture, music and history. Whether you're first, second generation Irish or even with no connection to Ireland, you should visit in 2013 for a unique experience.

The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.

Why should Ireland be treated as a geographical fragment of England - Ireland is not a geographical fragment, but a nation.

But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people in the world?

An Irishman can be worried by the consciousness that there is nothing to worry about.

Ireland is a peculiar society in the sense that it was a nineteenth century society up to about 1970 and then it almost bypassed the twentieth century.

To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.

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.

What's the use of being Irish if the world doesn't break your heart?

The English are not happy unless they are miserable, the Irish are not at peace unless they are at war, and the Scots are not at home unless they are abroad.

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.

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

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.

When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.

Every St. Patrick's Day every Irishman goes out to find another Irishman to make a speech to.

Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.

Being Irish was a big thing for me, particularly growing up in Chicago.

You know it is summer in Ireland when the rain gets warmer.

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make as they go by.

There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting.

I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system.

If it was raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks.

What's the use of being Irish if you can't be thick?

This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever.

Being Irish is very much a part of who I am. I take it everywhere with me.

I think being a woman is like being Irish. Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the same.

As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

St. Patrick... one of the few saints whose feast day presents the opportunity to get determinedly whacked and make a fool of oneself all under the guise of acting Irish.

Ireland, sir, for good or evil, is like no other place under heaven, and no man can touch its sod or breathe its air without becoming better or worse.

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.

In heaven there is no beer. That's why we drink ours here.

May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.

Ireland is a fruitful mother of genius, but a barren nurse.

When I die, I want to decompose in a barrel of porter and have it served in all the pubs in Dublin. I wonder would they know it was me?

The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scotts as a joke, but the Scotts haven't seen the joke yet.

All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.

That's how vile i am! I live Ireland, I breathe Ireland, and Christ how I loathe it, I wish I were a bloody Scot, that's how bloody awful it is being Irish!

A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he's finished.

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?'

I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way: by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.

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.

I don't feel I have to defend myself for being English or for being Irish, because, in a way, I don't feel either. And, in another way, of course, I'm both.

Irish Alzheimer's: you forget everything except the grudges

God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world.

I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.