Accomplishment Quote by William V. Shannon

“In the secular trinity of Irish-American values, loyalty and humor are father and son. Self-deprecation is the spirit that works in mysterious ways ... ”

— Maureen Dezell

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

We in Ireland are gifted beyond most peoples with a talent for acting, and in Dublin especially, while scorning culture, which indeed we have…

— Susan Mitchell

The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.

— Luc de Clapiers

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

— Anonymous

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

— Fiona Shaw

Not in vain is Ireland pouring itself all over the earth. The Irish, with their glowing hearts and reverent credulity, are needed in this…

— Lydia M. Child

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…

— George Bernard Shaw

We've got enormous potential, phenomenal potential on our doorstep, which requires politics that makes that work, and that's what we try to show here…

— Enda Kenny

Thus the brave and aspiring life of one man lights a flame in the minds of others of like faculties and impulse; and where…

— Samuel Smiles

I went further and further back through the centuries to get a sense of perspective but now at least I understand why Irish history…

— James D'arcy

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

— Seamus Heaney