--- title: "9 Irish Question Quotes by 9 authors" description: "Browse 9 Irish Question quotes by 9 authors. Discover the best Irish Question sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e91/katharine-tynan-29781_has-beens_the-trouble-with-the-irish-question-alwa_1121320.jpg" --- > [The trouble with the Irish question always has been that it was an English question.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katharine-tynan/the-trouble-with-the-irish-question-always-has-been-that-it-was-an/) [Katharine Tynan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katharine-tynan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e91/katharine-tynan-29781_has-beens_the-trouble-with-the-irish-question-alwa_1121320.jpg) > [“Gladstone .. spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-c-sellar-2/gladstone-spent-his-declining-years-trying-to-guess-the-answer-to-the/) [W.C. Sellar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-c-sellar-2/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9f/w-c-sellar-2-62434_ireland_gladstone-spent-his-declining-years-tryi_2417111.jpg) > [The Irish question is this: Do the Irish know the answer to everything? ... And the answer to that is that we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/olivia-robertson/the-irish-question-is-this-do-the-irish-know-the-answer-to-everything/) [Olivia Robertson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/olivia-robertson/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a2c/olivia-robertson-84187_answers_the-irish-question-is-this-do-the-irish_1159359.jpg) > [So is the English Parliament provincial. Mere country bumpkins, they betray themselves, when any more important question arises for them to settle,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/so-is-the-english-parliament-provincial-mere-country-bumpkins-they/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/537/henry-david-thoreau-20_arise_so-is-the-english-parliament-provincial_1884519.jpg) > [British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-c-sellar/british-prime-minister-william-ewart-gladstone-spent-his-declining/) [W. C. Sellar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/w-c-sellar/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/w-c-sellar-43797_answers_british-prime-minister-william-ewart-gla_492188.png) > [“The 'Irish Question' has dogged English politics for four hundred years and will continue to measure out its irresolution in blood and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-toolis/the-irish-question-has-dogged-english-politics-for-four-hundred-years/) [Kevin Toolis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-toolis/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/96d/kevin-toolis-253590_ireland_the-irish-question-has-dogged-english-po_791390.jpg) > [Consider Ireland… You have a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and in addition the weakest executive in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-disraeli/consider-ireland-you-have-a-starving-population-an-absentee/) [Benjamin Disraeli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-disraeli/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/23a/benjamin-disraeli-390_aliens_consider-ireland-you-have-a-starving-pop_124596.png) > [The Irishman frees himself from slavery when he realizes the truth that the capitalist system is the most foreign thing in Ireland.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-connolly/the-irishman-frees-himself-from-slavery-when-he-realizes-the-truth/) [James Connolly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-connolly/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c9/james-connolly-16823_age_the-irishman-frees-himself-from-slavery_556513.jpg) > [“ Die Judenfrage ,' it used to be called, even by Jews. 'The Jewish Question.' I find I quite like this interrogative…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/die-judenfrage-it-used-to-be-called-even-by-jews-the-jewish-question/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02c/christopher-hitchens-117_antisemitism_die-judenfrage-it-used-to-be-called-even_1024671.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/irish-question/#itemlist", "name": "Irish Question Quotes", "numberOfItems": 9, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The trouble with the Irish question always has been that it was an English question.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katharine Tynan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katharine-tynan/the-trouble-with-the-irish-question-always-has-been-that-it-was-an/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e91/katharine-tynan-29781_has-beens_the-trouble-with-the-irish-question-alwa_1121320.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e91/katharine-tynan-29781_has-beens_the-trouble-with-the-irish-question-alwa_1121320.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e91/katharine-tynan-29781_has-beens_the-trouble-with-the-irish-question-alwa_1121320.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The trouble with the Irish question always has been that it was an English question.” — Katharine Tynan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Gladstone .. spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the Question, ...”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "W.C. Sellar" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-c-sellar-2/gladstone-spent-his-declining-years-trying-to-guess-the-answer-to-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9f/w-c-sellar-2-62434_ireland_gladstone-spent-his-declining-years-tryi_2417111.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9f/w-c-sellar-2-62434_ireland_gladstone-spent-his-declining-years-tryi_2417111.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a9f/w-c-sellar-2-62434_ireland_gladstone-spent-his-declining-years-tryi_2417111.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Gladstone .. spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately…” — W.C. Sellar", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The Irish question is this: Do the Irish know the answer to everything? ... And the answer to that is that we know fifteen different answers to every question. All of them right.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Olivia Robertson" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/olivia-robertson/the-irish-question-is-this-do-the-irish-know-the-answer-to-everything/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a2c/olivia-robertson-84187_answers_the-irish-question-is-this-do-the-irish_1159359.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a2c/olivia-robertson-84187_answers_the-irish-question-is-this-do-the-irish_1159359.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a2c/olivia-robertson-84187_answers_the-irish-question-is-this-do-the-irish_1159359.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The Irish question is this: Do the Irish know the answer to everything? ... And the answer to that is that…” — Olivia Robertson", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "So is the English Parliament provincial. Mere country bumpkins, they betray themselves, when any more important question arises for them to settle, the Irish question, for instance,--the English question why did I not say? Their natures are subdued to what they work in. Their \"good breeding\" respects only secondary objects.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Henry David Thoreau" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/so-is-the-english-parliament-provincial-mere-country-bumpkins-they/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/537/henry-david-thoreau-20_arise_so-is-the-english-parliament-provincial_1884519.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/537/henry-david-thoreau-20_arise_so-is-the-english-parliament-provincial_1884519.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/537/henry-david-thoreau-20_arise_so-is-the-english-parliament-provincial_1884519.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“So is the English Parliament provincial. Mere country bumpkins, they betray themselves, when any more…” — Henry David Thoreau", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the Question.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "W. C. Sellar" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/w-c-sellar/british-prime-minister-william-ewart-gladstone-spent-his-declining/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/w-c-sellar-43797_answers_british-prime-minister-william-ewart-gla_492188.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/w-c-sellar-43797_answers_british-prime-minister-william-ewart-gla_492188.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/w-c-sellar-43797_answers_british-prime-minister-william-ewart-gla_492188.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the…” — W. C. Sellar", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The 'Irish Question' has dogged English politics for four hundred years and will continue to measure out its irresolution in blood and human lives until there is peace in Ireland.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kevin Toolis" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-toolis/the-irish-question-has-dogged-english-politics-for-four-hundred-years/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/96d/kevin-toolis-253590_ireland_the-irish-question-has-dogged-english-po_791390.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/96d/kevin-toolis-253590_ireland_the-irish-question-has-dogged-english-po_791390.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/96d/kevin-toolis-253590_ireland_the-irish-question-has-dogged-english-po_791390.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The 'Irish Question' has dogged English politics for four hundred years and will continue to measure out its…” — Kevin Toolis", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Consider Ireland… You have a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and in addition the weakest executive in the world. That is the Irish Question.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Benjamin Disraeli" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-disraeli/consider-ireland-you-have-a-starving-population-an-absentee/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/23a/benjamin-disraeli-390_aliens_consider-ireland-you-have-a-starving-pop_124596.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/23a/benjamin-disraeli-390_aliens_consider-ireland-you-have-a-starving-pop_124596.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/23a/benjamin-disraeli-390_aliens_consider-ireland-you-have-a-starving-pop_124596.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Consider Ireland… You have a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and in…” — Benjamin Disraeli", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "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?", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "James Connolly" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-connolly/the-irishman-frees-himself-from-slavery-when-he-realizes-the-truth/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c9/james-connolly-16823_age_the-irishman-frees-himself-from-slavery_556513.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c9/james-connolly-16823_age_the-irishman-frees-himself-from-slavery_556513.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c9/james-connolly-16823_age_the-irishman-frees-himself-from-slavery_556513.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The Irishman frees himself from slavery when he realizes the truth that the capitalist system is the most…” — James Connolly", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“ Die Judenfrage ,' it used to be called, even by Jews. 'The Jewish Question.' I find I quite like this interrogative formulation, since the question—as Gertrude Stein once famously if terminally put it—may be more absorbing than the answer. Of course one is flirting with calamity in phrasing things this way, as I learned in school when the Irish question was discussed by some masters as the Irish 'problem.' Again, the word 'solution' can be as neutral as the words 'question' or 'problem,' but once one has defined a people or a nation as such, the search for a resolution can become a yearning for the conclusive. Endlösung : the final solution.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/die-judenfrage-it-used-to-be-called-even-by-jews-the-jewish-question/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02c/christopher-hitchens-117_antisemitism_die-judenfrage-it-used-to-be-called-even_1024671.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02c/christopher-hitchens-117_antisemitism_die-judenfrage-it-used-to-be-called-even_1024671.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02c/christopher-hitchens-117_antisemitism_die-judenfrage-it-used-to-be-called-even_1024671.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Die Judenfrage ,' it used to be called, even by Jews. 'The Jewish Question.' I find I quite like this…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/irish-question/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/irish-question/", "name": "Irish Question Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/irish-question/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e91/katharine-tynan-29781_has-beens_the-trouble-with-the-irish-question-alwa_1121320.jpg" }, "description": "Browse 9 Irish Question quotes by 9 authors. 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