Irishmen Quotes

“For the multiculturalist, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants are prohibited, Italians and Irish get a little respect, blacks are good, native Americans are even better. The further away we go, the more they deserve respect. This is a kind of inverted, patronising respect that puts everyone at a distance.”
― Slavoj Žižek

“Do you know that an Irishman always respond to a question with another?"
And the Irish guy replies "Who told you that?”
― Cathy Kelly, Never Too Late

“A driver had been sent to meet us. He was gray-haired, short, and nimble and introduced himself. "I am Patrick and so is every fourth man in Ireland, and the ones in between are named Sean or Mick or Finn, and I'll be driving you.”
― Sharon Creech, The Great Unexpected: An Enchanting Story of Orphan Friendship, Irish Mystery, and Forgiveness for Kids

“Do not push me,” she warned in a shaky voice.

“Och, but I will.” He shifted on his booted feet, pushed his hips harder against hers, until she felt a part of the wall. A part of him. “You lifted a blade to me, Katarina. I’m going to push you hard.”
― Kris Kennedy, Claiming Her

“We Irish are the only people in the world who are actually nostalgic about the future.”
― Joe Biden, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose

“A real Irishman will give everything of himself--except that kernel of his soul which makes him a mystery to other peoples.”
― Jim Tully Beggars Abroad

“In the 1870s it was estimated that a third of all the money in the Irish economy came from money sent by kindhearted Irish servant girls to their families. The Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank in New York alone would send more than $30 million to Ireland between 1850 and 1880. Many families in Ireland owed their survival to what they gratefully called the "American Letter," a lifeline that helped them cope with brutal poverty and lack of opportunity.”
― Rashers Tierney, F*ck You, I'm Irish: Why We Irish Are Awesome

“Killy arched an eyebrow in disbelief. "Don't be thinkin' you can deceive this old man. I've been makin' a fool of myself over women since before you were born.”
― Pamela Clare, Defiant

“Scarlett O'Hara's father, Thomas, is an Irish immigrant who names his plantation Tara, after the home of the High Kings in Ireland. In an appealing nod to the "luck of the Irish," we read that Thomas O'Hara won his lands in a card game!”
― Rashers Tierney, F*ck You, I'm Irish: Why We Irish Are Awesome

“His instructions for the flight had been unequivocal. He was to remain quiet and anonymous, avoiding unnecessary conversation and making every effort to appear as invisible as possible. He presumed this meant someone had ensured that the aisle seat would remain empty. Surely an intelligence expert of any quality - particularly a British one - would not expect an Irishman to sit next to someone for nine hours without talking.”
― Kathryn Guare, Deceptive Cadence

“It's often said that "the Irish built America. The truth is, not only did they build it, they also manufactured, repaired, and cleaned it, especially in the decades before and after the potato famine.”
― Rashers Tierney, F*ck You, I'm Irish: Why We Irish Are Awesome

“I went to the meeting with some trepidation for, although I might have met a wizard before, I had never encountered an Irishman.”
― Iain Pears

“I'm Irish yet I don't drink as I refuse to be a stereotype and live down to the expectations of others.”
― Stewart Stafford

“He put his mouth by her ear. “Easy, now, Senna.” His thumb stroked her jaw as if he were gentling a wild thing. His sculpted body was hot behind hers. “Be easy "

“Stop touching me,” she pleaded in a whisper. His thumb stopped moving. “What?”

“Kiss me.”

The rest of him went completely still...

“What did ye say?” he asked in a low, masculine rumble…

Her heart started a strange thudding. Their voices were so quiet that the breeze blowing over them nearly drowned them out. Both were held paralyzed by the riders on the highway below. No one was going anywhere. In fact, it might all be over in a matter of minutes. And all she wanted was his touch.

If I am going to die, she suddenly decided, it will not be absent the touch of this Irishman.She touched his hand and slid it across the mere inch back to her lips. Shutting her eyes, she trailed the tip of her tongue over his warm flesh.His body rippled slightly, like wind over waves. She felt every muscle in his body shift, very minutely, very definitely. He brushed his thumb once over her parted lips. Her breath shuddered out.

“Did ye tell me to kiss ye, Senna?”

“I did.” Her whisper trembled.

“Why?”

“Because,” she whispered, “if I’m going to die, it will not be lacking all the things I am lacking at present.” A pause.

“Ye’re lacking a kiss, then?”

She nodded.”
― Kris Kennedy, The Irish Warrior

“With our gift for language and willingness to stand up and be counted, as well as heaps of charm and charisma, we Irish have long been an integral part of American political life.”
― Rashers Tierney, F*ck You, I'm Irish: Why We Irish Are Awesome

“In 1903, Sir James Power, Lord Mayor of Dublin, was surprised to note on a transatlantic trip that the typical Irish immigrant in America was now "not merely a hewer of wood and a drawer of water." In fact, he remarked that they are "found occupying...respectable positions in society.”
― Rashers Tierney, F*ck You, I'm Irish: Why We Irish Are Awesome

“Cork-born Mother Jones was renowned as a dramatic orator who relished props, curses, and all kinds of attention-getting tactics--sound at all Irish to you? She exaggerated her age, referring to strikers not too much younger than herself as "my boys" and donning frumpish costumes to emphasize her "motherly appearance.”
― Rashers Tierney, F*ck You, I'm Irish: Why We Irish Are Awesome

“Nellie Cashman, from Midleton, County Cork, made a mint providing "bed, board, and booze" to the gold and silver miners all over the western US and Canada. She was a prodigious entrepreneur, running and owning numerous stores, restaurants, and hotels in various mining settlements. While working the bar of her hotel, canny Nellie was able to buy a number of very lucrative mines by discretely listening to the gossip of drunken prospectors.”
― Rashers Tierney, F*ck You, I'm Irish: Why We Irish Are Awesome

“The single greatest influence in our lives was the church. The Catholic Church in the 1960s differs from what it is today, especially in the Naugatuck Valley, in those days an overwhelmingly conservative Catholic place.
I was part of what might have been the last generation of American Catholic children who completely and unquestioningly accepted the supernatural as real. Miracles happened. Virgin birth and transubstantiation made perfect sense. Mere humans did in fact, become saints. There was a Holy Ghost. Guardian angels walked beside us and our patron saints really did put in a good word for us every now and then.”
― John William Tuohy, No Time to Say Goodbye: A Memoir of a Life in Foster Care

“A man cannot be too careful in selecting the individual who is intrusted with his cartel. He should run over the names of his friends, and endeavour to obtain the services of a staid, cool, calculating old fellow; if possible, one who has seen some few shots exchanged: but I should advise his never choosing an Irishman on any account, as nine out of ten of those I have had the pleasure of forming an acquaintance with, both abroad and in this country, have such an innate love of fighting, they cannot bring an affair to an amicable adjustment.”
― A Traveller, The Art of Duelling

“But, Grandma, this teacher is Irish.
Oh, yeah? well, they're the worst, always talking and singing about green things or getting shot and hung.”
― Frank McCourt, Teacher Man

“Sean O'Casey had once said that when you lived with the Irish you marched in a fool's parade, and oh how right he had been.”
― Stephen King, The Tommyknockers