Irish Quotes



Welcome to Irish Quotes. Here you will find famous quotes and quotations about the Irish people.

Irish Quotes and Quotations

A best friend is like a four leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have. ~Author Unknown

A lot of Irish people perform. They perform in drawing rooms. They sing songs and they play piano. ~Fiona Shaw

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

An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto one blade of grass to keep from falling off the earth. ~Irish Saying

Anyone acquainted with Ireland knows that the morning of St. Patrick's Day consists of the night of the seventeenth of March flavored strongly with the morning of the eighteenth. ~Author Unknown

Irish Quotes and Quotations

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

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

Being Irish was a big thing for me, particularly growing up in Chicago. ~Lara Flynn Boyle

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

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

Irish Quotes and Quotations

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

But let's just say, I'm Irish. I grew up in the 1950s. Religion had a very tight iron fist. ~Liam Neeson

Do you suppose it's true, that St. Patrick was a parselmouth, and his muggle friends never knew? ~Dave Beard

Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy. ~Fiona Shaw

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

Irish Quotes and Quotations

He was a terror to any snake that came in his path, whether it was the cold, slimy reptile sliding along the ground or the more dangerous snake that oppresses men through false teachings. And he drove the snakes out of the minds of men, snakes of superstition and brutality and cruelty. ~Arthur Brisbane

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

I come from a long line of staunch Irish Catholics. ~Robert Vaughn

I feel more Irish than English. I feel freer than British, more visceral, with a love of language. Shot through with fire in some way. That's why I resist being appropriated as the current repository of Shakespeare on the planet. That would mean I'm part of the English cultural elite, and I am utterly ill-fitted to be. ~Kenneth Branagh

Irish Quotes and Quotations

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

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

I had that stubborn streak, the Irish in me I guess. ~Gregory Peck

I have a thing for red-haired Irish boys, as we know. ~Sandra Bullock

I must admit, even though I'm the product of two Jewish parents, I think the Irish temper got in there somewhere, so I'm going to check Mom's genealogy. ~Harvey Weinstein

Irish Quotes and Quotations

I never thought about becoming a professional singer, but I am in touch with Bono about releasing a musical movie. It will be about an Irish band during the '70s who are looking for fortune in Las Vegas. I should play the singer of the band but I don't want to sing in front of anybody. ~Liam Neeson

I own a lot of my house, because I'm Irish and from people who never owned anything. ~Dan Savage

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

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

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that. ~Van Morrison

Irish Quotes and Quotations

I think there's nothing better than laughing in life, so that's nice, to be thought of as someone who can make someone laugh. It's 'cause I think life is hard. You know, my dad was a really silly man. A great Irish silly man. And that's fine. ~Joan Cusack

I was raised Irish Catholic, but I don't consider myself Irish Catholic: I consider myself me, an American. ~

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

If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky? ~Stanislaw J. Lec

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

Irish Quotes and Quotations

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

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

If you hold a four-leaf shamrock in your left hand at dawn on St. Patrick's Day you get what you want very much but haven't wished for. ~Patricia Lynch

If you're enough lucky to be Irish, you're lucky enough! ~Irish Saying

I'm an Irish Catholic and I have a long iceberg of guilt. ~Edna O'Brien

Irish Quotes and Quotations

I'm Irish, so I'm used to odd stews. I can take it. Just throw a lot of carrots and onions in there and I'll call it dinner. ~Liam Neeson

I'm Irish. I think about death all the time. ~Jack Nicholson

I'm just a true Irish boy at heart. ~Colin Farrell

In 1953 there were two ways for an Irish Catholic boy to impress his parents: become a priest or attend Notre Dame. ~Phil Donahue

In Ireland, it's been like U2 and The Cranberries, which is rock, but you know they're Irish. ~Caroline Corr

Irish Quotes and Quotations

In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfying the Irish nation. ~Samuel Butler

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

Irish Americans are no more Irish than Black Americans are Africans. ~Bob Geldof

Irish people are educated not only about artistry but local history. ~Fiona Shaw

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

Irish Quotes and Quotations

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

I've had Irish skin from the time I was a young girl. ~Lara Flynn Boyle

Like a lot of Irish households we read a lot of Irish history. It was almost Soviet, raising the next generation with a mythic view of their history. ~Fiona Shaw

Many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for four-leaf clovers. ~Author Unknown

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

Irish Quotes and Quotations

My father was a Norwegian tenor and my mother a New York Irish librarian. ~David Johansen

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

My Irish derivation has nothing to do with me. Why should it? ~Carroll O'Connor

My mother is Irish, my father is black and Venezuelan, and me - I'm tan, I guess. ~Mariah Carey

Irish Quotes and Quotations

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

My wife and I both come from Irish families. There are two kinds of Irish families: the hitting kind and the kidding kind. If you're fortunate - and both of us are - you come from the kidding kind of Irish family. ~P. J. O'Rourke

Never iron a four-leaf clover, because you don't want to press your luck. ~Author Unknown

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

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

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

Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis. ~Brendan Behan

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

Second-generation Hispanics marry non-Hispanics at a higher rate than second-generation Irish or Italians. Second-generation Hispanics' English language capability rates are higher than previous immigrant groups'. ~Jeb Bush

Sometimes the archaism of the language when it's spoken is why we are all in love with the Irish today. ~Diane Wakoski

Irish Quotes and Quotations

St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time - a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic. ~Adrienne Cook

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

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

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

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

The Ireland I now inhabit is one that these Irish contemporaries have helped to imagine. ~Seamus Heaney

The Irish are the only men who know how to cry for the dirty polluted blood of all the world. ~Norman Mailer

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

The Irish Republican Army has kept every commitment made by its leadership. ~Gerry Adams

The Irish seem to have more fire about them than the Scots. ~Sean Connery

Irish Quotes and Quotations

The list of Irish saints is past counting; but in it all no other figure is so human, friendly, and lovable as St. Patrick - who was an Irishman only by adoption. ~Stephen Gwynn

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

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

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

There's something about the Irish that is remarkable. ~Fiona Shaw

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

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

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

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

We play our Irish songs a bit more loosely. ~Caroline Corr

Irish Quotes and Quotations

What do you get when you cross poison ivy with a four-leaf clover? A rash of good luck. ~Author Unknown

When I was a kid, if you didn't speak Irish, you really wanted to. And you played Gaelic games and you didn't pay any attention to what was happening in the outside world, because really, Ireland was the center of the universe. And I don't think that's the case anymore. Although, admittedly, it is the center of the universe. ~Roddy Doyle

When others stood idly by, you and your families gave your all, in defence of a risen people and in pursuit of Irish freedom and unity. ~Gerry Adams

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

Yancy is actually a Native-American name, but I'm Irish. Go figure. ~Yancy Butler





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