Irishmen Quotes:

This would be a grand land if only every Irishman would kill a negro, and be hanged for it.

- Edward Augustus Freeman

source: 1881 Of America. Letter to F H Dickinson from New Haven, 4 Dec.

topic: Land, Would Be, Irishmen

I would never repudiate the fact that I am an Irishman

- Ian Paisley

topic: Facts, Irishmen

I thought I was God's gift to mankind and the greatest Irishman since George Best.

- James Nesbitt

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Mankind, Irishmen

Now it's a war on women; tomorrow it's going to be a war on left-handed Irishmen or something like that.

- Paul Ryan

source: "Paul Ryan Mocks ‘War On Women’ At Private Fundraiser". www.huffingtonpost.com. October 19, 2012.

topic: War, Tomorrow, Irishmen, Left Handed

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

- Shane Leslie

source: Shane Leslie (1936). “American wonderland: memories of four tours in the United States of America (1911-1935).”, London, M. Joseph

topic: Speech, St Patrick, Irishmen, St Patrick's Day, Irish Proverbs

As you know, I am neither Roman Catholic, Protestant Episcopalian, nor Presbyterian, nor am I an Irishman.

- John Bright

topic: Catholic, Irishmen, Protestants, Episcopalians

Every Irishman, the saying goes, has a potato in his head.

- Augustus Hare

topic: Potatoes, Irishmen

An Irishman's imagination never lets him alone, never convinces him, never satisfies him; but it makes him that he can't face reality nor deal with it nor handle it nor conquer it: he can only sneer at them that do, and be 'agreeable to strangers', like a good-for-nothing woman on the streets.

- George Bernard Shaw

source: 1904 Larry Doyle to Tom Broadbent. John Bull's Other Island, Act 1.

topic: Reality, Imagination, Faces, Irishmen

Put an Irishman on the spit and you can always get another Irishman to turn him.

- George Bernard Shaw

topic: Ireland And The Irish, Spit, Turns, Irishmen, Being Irish

No one who has any self-respect stays in Ireland, but flees afar as though from a country that has undergone the visitation of an angered Jove.

- James Joyce

source: James Joyce (2016). “The Complete Works of James Joyce: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Poetry, Essays & Letters: Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Finnegan’s Wake, Dubliners, The Cat and the Devil, Exiles, Chamber Music, Pomes Penyeach, Stephen Hero, Giacomo Joyce, Critical Writings & more”, p.2236, e-artnow

topic: Country, Anger, Self, Irish Author, Irishmen

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

topic: Broken, Want, Spirit, Irishmen

An Englishmen thinks seated; a Frenchmen standing; an American pacing, an Irishman, afterwards.

- Austin O'Malley

topic: Thinking, Pacing, Englishmen, Irishmen

Two Irishmen were passing a pub - well, it could happen.

- Frank Carson

topic: Two, Passing, Pubs, Irishmen

The Irishman sustains himself during brief periods of joy by the knowledge that tragedy is just around the corner.

- William Butler Yeats

topic: Joy, Tragedy, Periods, Irishmen

What captivity has been to the Jews, exile has been to the Irish. For us, the romance of our native land begins only after we have left home; it is really only with other people that we become Irishmen.

- Peter Ackroyd

source: "The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde". Book by Peter Ackroyd, 1983.

topic: Home, Land, People, Irishmen, Native Land

Mulligan: invented by an Irishman who wanted to hit one more twenty yard grounder.

- Jim Bishop

topic: Golf, Twenties, Yards, Mulligans, Irishmen

Give an Irishman lager for a month and he's a dead man. An Irishman's stomach is lined with copper, and the beer corrodes it. But whiskey polishes the copper and is the saving of him.

- Mark Twain

topic: Beer, Men, Giving, Whisky, Copper

We refuse to lie here in dishonor! We are not criminals, but Irishmen! This is the crime of which we stand accused.

- Bobby Sands

topic: Lying, Criminals, Crime, Dishonor, Irishmen

When the Irishman is found outside of Ireland in another environment, he very often becomes a respected man. The economic and intellectual conditions that prevail in his own country do not permit the development of individuality. No one who has any self-respect stays in Ireland, but flees afar as though from a country that has undergone the visitation of an angered Jove.

- James Joyce

source: James Joyce (1959). “Critical writings”

topic: Country, Men, Self, Irish Author, Irishmen

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

topic: Way, Language, Shame, Disgraceful, Irishmen

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

topic: Character, Helping, Celtic, Countrymen, Irishmen

Ireland, as distinct from her people, is nothing to me; and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for "Ireland," and can yet pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and the suffering, shame and degradation wrought upon the people of Ireland-yea, wrought by Irishmen upon Irish men and women, without burning to end it, is, in my opinion, a fraud and a liar in his heart, no matter how he loves that combination of chemical elements he is pleased to call Ireland.

- James Connolly

source: James Connolly (1987). “Labour in Irish history ; The re-conquest of Ireland ; Socialism and nationalism”

topic: Liars, Heart, Men, Irishmen

Have you heard about the Irishman who reversed into a car boot sale and sold the engine?

- Frank Carson

topic: Car, Boots, Heard, Irishmen

An Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman were invited to a Christmas party. The Englishman brought a bag of tinsel, the Scotsman brought a bag of holly and they asked the Irishman: "What have you brought?" He said: "I brought a pair of knickers." They asked: "What has that got to do with Christmas?" He said "They're Carol's."

- Frank Carson

topic: Funny, Party, Humor, Carols, Knickers

In becoming an Irishman, Patrick wedded his world to theirs, his faith to their life…Patrick found a way of swimming down to the depths of the Irish psyche and warming and transforming Irish imagination – making it more humane and more noble while keeping it Irish.

- Thomas Cahill

source: FaceBook post by Thomas Cahill from Jan 12, 2012

topic: Swimming, Imagination, Noble, Irishmen

The heart of an Irishman is nothing but his imagination

- George Bernard Shaw

topic: Heart, Imagination, Empathy, Irishmen

It used to be the case that for an Irishman to come to the U.S. involved a perilous journey on a ship. It involved singing lots of songs before you left saying goodbye, and once you were in the U.S., it involved singing lots of songs about how you were never going to set foot in Ireland again.

- Joseph O'Neill

topic: Goodbye, Song, Journey, Irishmen

An Irishman's wife gave birth to twins. Her husband wanted to know who the other man was.

- Frank Carson

topic: Funny, Husband, Humor, Irishmen

An Irishman I am, begora! With a heart and a spirit on me not crushed be a hundred years of oppression. I'll be getting me shillelagh out next, wait'll you see.

- Martin McDonagh

source: Martin McDonagh (2013). “The Cripple Of Inishmaan”, p.63, A&C Black

topic: Heart, Years, Waiting, Irishmen

An Irishman needs three things : silence, cunnning, and exile.

- James Joyce

topic: Humor, Silence, Three, Three Things, Irishmen

As a member of the Protestant British squirearchy ruling Ireland, he was touchy about his Irish origins. When in later life an enthusiastic Gael commended him as a famous Irishman, he replied "A man can be born in a stable, and yet not be an animal.

- Duke of Wellington

topic: Animal, Men, Born, Touchy, Irishmen

An Irishman will always soften bad news, so that a major coronary is no more than 'a bad turn' and a near hurricane that leaves thousands homeless is 'good drying weather'.

- Hugh Leonard

topic: Weather, News, Hurricanes, Irishmen

I agree with the realistic Irishman who said he preferred to prophesy after the event.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

topic: Advice, Events, Realistic, Irishmen, Free Advice

I read the story and reread the story, but I still could not find the universality that the little Irishman had spoken of. All I saw in the story was some Irishmen meeting in a room and talking politics. What had that to do with America, especially with my people? It was not until years later that I saw what he meant ... I began to listen, to listen closely to how they talked about their heroes, to how they talked about the dead and how great the dead had once been. I heard it everywhere.

- Ulysses S. Grant

topic: Hero, Talking, Years, Irishmen, Talking Politics

Can it be possible that the painters make John the Baptist a Spaniard in Madrid and an Irishman in Dublin?

- Mark Twain

source: Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.4285, Delphi Classics

topic: Pain, Baptists, Dublin, Madrid, John The Baptist

The Irishman frees himself from slavery when he realizes the truth that the capitalist system is the most foreign thing in Ireland. The Irish question is a social question. The whole age-long fight of the Irish people against their oppressors resolves itself in the last analysis into a fight for the mastery of the means of life, the sources of production, in Ireland. Who would own and control the land? The people, or the invaders; and if the invaders, which set of them - the most recent swarm of land thieves, or the sons of the thieves of a former generation?

- James Connolly

topic: Mean, Fighting, Son, Irishmen

But I liked Yeats! That wild Irishman. I really loved his love of language, his flow. His chaotic ideas seemed to me just the right thing for a poet. Passion! He was always on the right side. He may be wrongheaded, but his heart was always on the right side. He wrote beautiful poetry.

- Chinua Achebe

topic: Beautiful, Passion, Heart, Yeats, Irishmen

Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.

- Henry David Thoreau

topic: Couple, Attitude, Sea, Irishmen, Sparring

There were two Irishmen eating sandwiches in a pub and the landlord said: "You can't eat your own food in here." So they swapped sandwiches.

- Frank Carson

topic: Funny, Humor, Two, Landlord, Irishmen

Verily, chemistry is not a splitting of hairs when you have got half a dozen raw Irishmen in the laboratory.

- Henry David Thoreau

source: Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Cape Cod (Annotated Edition)”, p.171, Jazzybee Verlag

topic: Hair, Half, Dozen, Irishmen

The doctors are all agreed that I am suffering for want of society. Was never a case like it. First, I did not know that I was suffering at all. Secondly, as an Irishman might say, I had thought it was indigestion of the society I got.

- Henry David Thoreau

source: Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1861, Delphi Classics

topic: Doctors, Solitude, Suffering, Irishmen

Alas! the culture of an Irishman is an enterprise to be undertaken with a sort of moral bog hoe.

- Henry David Thoreau

source: Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden”, p.176, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Hoe, Culture, Bogs, Irishmen

I am one who fights without a knack of hoping confidentlysimply a Scotch-Irishman who will not be conquered.

- Woodrow Wilson

topic: Fighting, Scotch, Knack, Irishmen

I'll tell you what you can expect from an Irishman named Wellington whose father was a bookmaker. You can expect that anything he says or writes may be repeated aloud in your own home in front of your children. You can believe he was taught to love and respect all mankind, but to fear no man.

- Wellington Mara

topic: Children, Father, Believe, Wellington, Fear No Man

I was walking across King's Cross station when a drunken Irishman came stumbling up and flung his arms around me. He wanted to thank me for the peace process in Northern Ireland.

- Ann Widdecombe

topic: Kings, Arms, Crosses, Northern Ireland, Irishmen

The shot Irishmen will now take their places beside Emmet and the Manchester Martyrs in Ireland, and beside the heroes of Poland and Sérbia and Belgium in Europe; and nothing in heaven or earth can prevent it.

- George Bernard Shaw

topic: Hero, Europe, Heaven, Belgium, Irishmen

I swim in a pool of my own neurosis. I carry love, grief deeply, like an Irishman.

- Richard Harris

topic: Grief, Swim, Neurosis, Irishmen

Put an Englishman into the garden of Eden, and he would find fault with the whole blasted concern; put a Yankee in, and he would see where he could alter it to advantage; put an Irishman in, and he would want to boss the thing; put a Dutchman in, and he would proceed to plant it.

- Josh Billings

source: "Josh Billings, Hiz Sayings". Book by Josh Billings, 1865.

topic: Garden, Yankees, Eden, Irishmen

It is rare that we use our thinking faculty as resolutely as an irishman his spade. To please our friends and relatives we turn out our silver ore in cartloads, while we neglect to workour mines of gold known only to ourselves far up in the Sierras, where we pulled up a bush in our mountain walk, and saw the glittering treasure. Let us return thither. Let it be the price of our freedom to make that known.

- Henry David Thoreau

source: Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.4, David M Gross

topic: Thinking, Gold, Mountain, Spades, Irishmen

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

- Austin O'Malley

topic: Worry, Ireland And The Irish, Consciousness, Irishmen, Being Irish

Ideally, we'd want an Irishman coming in for the job, but, ideally it doesn't really matter.

- Clinton Morrison

topic: Jobs, Want, Matter, Irishmen

To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means.

- Wolfe Tone

source: Sean Cronin, Richard Roche, Theobald Wolfe Tone (1973). “Freedom the Wolfe Tone way”

topic: Country, Memories, Mean, Denominations, Dissension