“I'm far from believing that we've solved the problem of violence in the 20th century and that's why I'm not discouraged that we still have the Biafras and the Northern Irelands and the East Pakistans and, for that matter, violence in American or Canadian cities.” BelieveStillsMatterProblemCitiesViolenceCenturyEastIreland20th CenturyPakistanDiscouragedNorthern Ireland Author:Pierre Trudeau
“In Northern Ireland, people said there would never be a solution. But once people begin to have the political will and force their governments to sit down, it can happen.” PeopleSaidGovernmentHappensPoliticalForceSolutionsIrelandPolitical WillNorthern Ireland Author:Mairead Corrigan
“Our view is that we would want to see the situation in Ireland resolved, but we do not intervene in that situation for tactical reasons. Our view is commonly known that imperialism wherever it is must be fought and that justice must be done in Ireland.” WantReasonDoneJusticeViewsSituationKnownIrelandImperialismTactical Author:Robert Mugabe
“One thing we do know is that mass literacy is a product of the 19th century, at least in English-speaking cultures - Ireland, England, Scotland, Canada, and the U. S.” KnowsCultureOne ThingCenturyProductsMassEnglandCanadaIrelandScotlandLiteracy19th CenturyEnglish Speaking Author:Robert Hass
“Someone in Ireland asked me how many Republican poets there were in the U.S., and I thought maybe two. Maybe there are 10,000 poets, and maybe there are two Republicans among them.” TwoPoetRepublicanIreland Author:Robert Hass
“Ireland is a place that's beautiful and interesting, but I remember when I went there as a teenager with my parents, I was like, "Okay, I'll go to Ireland with my parents. It's going to be green." I think people underestimate it, in that it's, "Oh, it's green," and then you get there, and it's like, "Wow, it is green!" It's, "Oh, there's Irish music," and then you get there, and you're like, "Oh, this Irish music is amazing!" You underestimate it.” PeopleThinkingBeautifulRememberParentInterestingMusic IsOkayGreenTeenagerWowIrelandUnderestimateRemember WhenIrish Music Author:Jim Gaffigan
“There are fewer and fewer Jews in Ireland, but we still have one of the most famous Jewish characters in literary history, of course, in Leopold Bloom.” StillsCharacterCoursesJewFewerIreland Author:Colum McCann
“Microsoft is in a court battle with the Department of Justice. The DOJ is saying, "We want information from your data center in Ireland. It's not about a US citizen, but we want it." Microsoft said, "OK, fine. Go to a judge in Ireland. Ask them for a warrant. We have a mutual legal-assistance treaty. They'll do it. Give that to us, and we'll provide the information to you in accordance with Irish laws."” WantGivingSaidLawAsksJusticeInformationJudgingFineCitizensBattleCourtDataDepartmentMutualIrelandAssistanceMicrosoftTreatiesWarrantsData Centers Author:Edward Snowden
“I always tell people, you know, [J.F.Kennedy's] grandfather was born in Ireland and he was Irish-Catholic, and I thought, so maybe I could someday try do what he did.” PeopleKnowsTryingBornCatholicSomedayIrelandGrandfather Author:Mike Pence
“As a citizen of Ireland I have more sovereignty over our government. Because citizens now have more ways of holding the Irish government to account, not just under Irish constitutional law, but under the European system, at Strasbourg and Brussels. This, I believe, is the benefit for individual citizens.” WayBelieveGovernmentLawIndividualI BelieveCitizensBenefitsAccountsIrelandSovereigntyBrusselsConstitutional LawThis I Believe Author:Mary Robinson
“Ireland is not in a good place at the moment. We have our own humiliation of losing our economic sovereignty, and we're now regaining it slowly and painfully.” MomentsEconomicLosingIrelandSovereigntyHumiliationGood Place Author:Mary Robinson
“I'm coming to a sense of a women's movement which was extraordinarily important in the struggle for freedom in Ireland and immediately afterwards, but then some of those women who were involved in the movement got involved in representative positions and perhaps some of them got a bit distanced from the grassroots issues. But also the women's movement itself seemed to say, "No, we've got our own government, our own parties in power" and they sat back.” ImportantGovernmentBitsPartyStruggleIssuesMovementPositionInvolvedSatIrelandRepresentativesGrassrootsStruggle For Freedom Author:Mary Robinson
“My middle name is Nicole. It's so weird because my mom is from El Salvador, but my sisters and I have Irish names - Christy, Kelly, and Erin. And Christy and Kelly, they're not even girls' names! In Ireland, they're boys' names. And somehow, my mom was in El Salvador dreaming about Shamrocks before we were born.” DreamGirlNamesBornBoysMiddleMomMy MomMy SisterIrelandNicoleEl SalvadorErinShamrocks Author:Christy Turlington
“It's the reason why so many people left Britain like I did in the mid 60s because Britain was exactly the same then as America is today, getting ready to redistribute social wealth and it didn't work. You've seen that in places like Greece, Portugal, Iceland, Ireland where the entire country's business has collapsed, gone bankrupt. That's where America is heading.” PeopleCountryReasonTodayAmericaLeftSocialWealthGoneReadyReason WhyBritainIrelandGreeceHeadingsPortugalIceland Author:Robin Leach
“That's why Apple, Microsoft and the big information technology companies have kept so much money registered abroad (although in US dollar accounts with a nominal foreign address's owner). They pretend to make their global income in Ireland. They have an office, which could be simply a postal drop box in Ireland, and claim to make all their money there, not in America.” BigsAmericaCompanyTechnologyInformationOfficeAccountsClaimsDollarsBoxesIncomeApplesAddressesOwnersIrelandMicrosoftInformation Technology Author:Michael Hudson
“You're basing your laws and your whole outlook on natural life on mythology. It won't work. That's why you have all these problems in the world. Name them: India, Pakistan, Ireland. Name them-all these problems. They're all religious problems.” WorldWholeProblemLawNamesNaturalReligiousIndiaMythologyIrelandPakistanOutlookNatural LifeIndia And PakistanIndia Pakistan Author:Jack Kevorkian
“Membership in the European Community, now the European Union, has helped Ireland to take its place as a European country with all the member states, including Britain. It has therefore helped the maturing of a good bilateral relationship with Britain, lifting part of the burden of history.” CountryStatesCommunityMembersUnionsIncludingBurdenBritainMatureIrelandLiftingEuropean UnionMembershipEuropean Countries Author:Mary Robinson
“Membership in the European Community, now the European Union, has enabled Ireland to re-find its sense of participation - cultural, political, social - at the European level. I think that also opens up possibilities for Ireland as a European country to look outward - to look particularly, for example, at countries to which a lot of Irish people emigrated, to our links - our human links - with the United States, with Canada, with Australia, with New Zealand. And to look also, because of our history, at our links to the developing countries.” PeopleThinkingHumansLooksCountryStatesPoliticalSocialCommunityLevelsUnitedUnited StatesExamplePossibilityUnionsDevelopingCanadaAustraliaLinksIrelandParticipationEuropean UnionNew ZealandMembershipEuropean CountriesDeveloping Countries Author:Mary Robinson
“Thanks to the European Union, Ireland has a much more open climate of discussion and debate, as you can see in the media. It means that we are a more questioning society, perhaps more honestly prepared to address serious issues and problems, more open to the idea that different viewpoints should be heard and respected.” ShouldMeanIdeasDifferentProblemIssuesHeardMediaSeriousUnionsPreparedClimateHonestlyDebateThanksDiscussionAddressesIrelandQuestioningEuropean UnionViewpointsSerious Issues Author:Mary Robinson
“I don't think we in Ireland have to follow slavishly what other countries have done. Ireland has its own strengths - in family life, in the local community, in the concept of meitheal, a very traditional form of cooperation in rural Ireland. Three or four or five neighbors get together, exchanging labor, farm equipment, and so on. There are strong solidarity overtones. That tradition is being translated today into community self-development.” ThinkingSelfCountryDoneTodayTogetherFormThreeStrongCommunityFiveFourDevelopmentConceptsTraditionLaborNeighborLocalsTraditionalFarmsCooperationIrelandOther CountriesSolidarityEquipmentSelf DevelopmentFamily LifeGet TogetherExchangingLocal Community Author:Mary Robinson
“We have long had emigration in Ireland. But the nature of emigration has changed. With ferries to Britain and the continent, as well as air travel, emigration isn't the cutÂoff it used to be. In addition, some of our young people are being educated to levels beyond our present capacity to provide the jobs they are qualified to do. So they go abroad. Many want to come back, especially when they have children they would want to be raised in the Irish society and in the Irish educational system.” PeopleWantWellsChildrenLongJobsYoungUsedLevelsCuttingAirChangedCapacityRaisedEducationalEducatedUsed To BeBritainIrelandContinentsQualifiedEducational SystemAir TravelFerryEmigration Author:Mary Robinson
“The first thing to recognize is how fortunate Ireland is to be an island off the west coast of Europe, and therefore helped by the prevailing winds to escape the effects of acid rain and other problems. We were also lucky not to have had the same kind of industrial revolution and industry as some other countries. Our problem now is to create employment, but to do it in ways that value our environment.” WayFirstsKindCountryProblemValuesEnvironmentEffectsWindRevolutionIndustryLuckyEuropeRainWestEmploymentFortunateIslandsIrelandOther CountriesCoastOur EnvironmentAcidPrevailingSo LuckyIndustrial RevolutionWest CoastAcid Rain Author:Mary Robinson
“We must encourage energy conservation and sustainable development. Young people are the ones who are most environmentally conscious in Ireland, so that to some extent they are educating their parents. They are tackling issues of waste disposal and so on. The schools help, because they put a lot of stress on environmental awareness.” PeopleHelpingSchoolYoungEnergyParentIssuesAwarenessDevelopmentWasteConsciousStressEnvironmentalIrelandConservationSustainable DevelopmentTacklingEnergy ConservationWaste Disposal Author:Mary Robinson
“I felt when I was elected that the most important task on this island [Ireland] was to extend the hand of friendship right across the board to the people of Northern Ireland, to have the beginnings of a real peace process. In consequence, although I have no role in intergovernmental talks or political discussions, that would be my very top priority.” PeopleImportantRealHandsWould BePoliticalFeltProcessRolesConsequenceTasksPrioritiesDiscussionBoardsIslandsIrelandTop PrioritiesNorthern Ireland Author:Mary Robinson
“I think Scotland's got its own issues, in some ways similar to Northern Ireland with sectarianism, which has been a long-running sore. All the issues of land ownership, development resources, poverty, alcoholism and violence, all these things.” ThinkingWayLongHas BeensRunningPovertyIssuesViolenceLandDevelopmentResourcesIrelandOwnershipScotlandAlcoholismSectarianismNorthern Ireland Author:Irvine Welsh
“I know it feels like two steps forward and one step back, but we are making progress. In my lifetime, I have lived through one World War, I have lived through the end of Apartheid in South Africa, the pulling down of the Berlin Wall. I have experienced what I never thought I would have experienced, which is a pretty workable peace in Northern Ireland, and I experienced a unified Europe - until the Conservative government got its hands on the idea that in order to appease a few back-benchers they would hold a referendum, what a disastrous idea.” KnowsWorldFeelsTwoIdeasWarEndsHandsGovernmentOrderStepsProgressWallEuropeLifetimeSouthConservativeWar Of The WorldsIrelandWorld War ISouth AfricaPullingBerlinApartheidSteps ForwardUnifiedAppeaseNorthern IrelandReferendumsBerlin Wall Author:Patrick Stewart
“A possibility is that we see more and more leverage, and credit-to-GDP ratios rise once more to even higher levels; eventually the banking systems of all advanced economies reach magnitudes of 500 percent, 1000 percent or more of GDP, so that every economy starts to have financial systems that resemble recent cases like Switzerland, Ireland, Iceland, or Cyprus. That might be a very fragile world to live in.” WorldMightLevelsCasesEconomyPossibilityHigherPercentFinancialCreditFragileIrelandBankingMagnitudeHigher LevelRatiosSwitzerlandGdpBanking SystemFinancial SystemIcelandCyprus Author:Alan M. Taylor
“I did find New Zealand similar to Ireland. The people, obviously. I found that, ironically, although these two countries were very far away from each other, their humor was so similar and their outlook on things was quite similar as well.” PeopleWellsTwoCountryFoundIrelandFar AwayOutlookNew ZealandTwo CountriesAway From Each Other Author:Saoirse Ronan
“Economic polarization is also occurring between creditor and debtor nations. This issplitting the eurozone between Germany, France and the Netherlands in the creditor camp, against Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy falling deeper into debt, unemployment and austerity - followed by emigration and capital flight.” FallEconomicFlightIrelandGreece Author:Michael Hudson
“On the business side, innovative leaders are beginning to wake up to the fact that this non-stop work trend is bad for business: Google Ireland tested a program called Dublin Goes Dark, where employees turned over their phones at the end of each work day. It seems like a sea change is ahead.” DarkLeaderProgramWake UpEmployeeIrelandGoogleInnovative Author:Katrina Onstad
“The United States of American business pays the second-highest business taxes in the world, 35 percent. Ireland pays 11 percent. Now, if you're a business person, and you can locate any place in the world, then, obviously, if you go to the country where it's 11 percent tax versus 35 percent, you're going to be able to create jobs, increase your business, make more investment, et cetera. I want to cut that business tax. I want to cut it so that businesses will remain in the United States of America and create jobs.” WorldCountryCuttingTaxesInvestmentIreland Author:John McCain
“I was a child of the '60s basically, which is a real blank. I really started growing up, I think, in the '70s. I'm a glam-rock kid. But Dublin, Ireland in those days was a very dark place, as in it was a very poor, almost third world. Economically, the whole world is going through a recession at the moment. In the '60s, '70s, and the '80s in Ireland was a real recession. It wasn't a pleasant place.” ThinkingWorldChildrenRealMomentsKidsDarkPoorGrowing UpIreland Author:Gavin Friday
“The last 15 years we had one of the biggest economic booms. But I think a few bubbles have burst in a few countries. So we are all going through the same things. But let's say Ireland, in the '70s and the '80s was tough, but if you grow up with a tough background it makes you strong.” ThinkingCountryStrongGrowing UpEconomicToughBubblesIreland Author:Gavin Friday
“My main influences - I loved art. I sounds a little pretentious to say I was into art but I liked drawing. I liked music; music was my outlet from day one. I was giving you an image of Ireland being this dull, grey, massive unemployment, not much going on and the future was the dull queue or - and, for me, the window of hope was music and books. So I fell in love with sort of T-Rex and David Bowie very young. They sort of said, "Hey. You don't have to live in this north side of Dublin that's all grey and depressed. You can be a spider and go to Mars."” GivingArtBookInfluenceWindowIrelandPretentiousHey You Author:Gavin Friday
“We don't have a long of natural resources as a country; we have a very beautiful country. Visually, I mean, everyone goes on about it's green, it's the mountains and the rivers and it's clean and it's not that populated. It is stunningly beautiful, but we've no oil. We've no coal. We've no money. We just have Ireland.” MeanLongCountryBeautifulNaturalMountainIrelandNo MoneyNatural ResourcesVery Beautiful Author:Gavin Friday
“A weird theory I have is we come from a suppressed culture. Ireland is one of the most invaded countries ever. I think the British started it very early, it could be like 800 that decided to come and show us out; and the Danes in the north. We've had a tough time and pretty much a similar culture would be the Jewish culture; they had a pretty hard time. They were being kicked around for a long, long time.” ThinkingLongCountryCultureToughHard TimesIrelandTough Times Author:Gavin Friday
“It’s just very homey in Ireland. It’s very comforting and comfortable. There’s lots of fireplaces with fires. It’s just really cozy.” FireComfortableIrelandComfortingCozyFireplaces Author:Amy Adams
“We've seen a lot of dirty politics in Ireland. We know from the French, their wonderfully neurotic presidents, that our hands are sort of tied. The Italians - I don't know where it stops. No nation can claim "We are an uncorrupt nation, therefore we will tell you what the morals of democracy are." Because it's going on everywhere.” PresidentMoralDemocracyDirtyIrelandNeurotic Author:Ciaran Hinds
“I don't live in Ireland, I live in London with my girlfriend; and it's because of the globalization of our planet, it's not necessary to live in Los Angeles to be a successful and any country is just an airplane ride away. If there's a director who wants to meet me or if there's something I have to do, I can just hop on an airplane - the world's small now.” CountrySuccessfulGirlfriendLos AngelesAirplaneIrelandGlobalizationMy Girlfriend Author:Jonathan Rhys Meyers
“The whole Ireland was taken over by greed and materialism. It was extraordinary. The price of every house had skyrocketed. If you were a small farmer and you had two fields outside, if you built 17 bungalows on them all, you become a millionaire, that kind of thing. It was extraordinary to see how rapidly that kind of ethic takes over a whole culture, but that's what's happened to us since the year 1998, about. It's completely extraordinary how little regard the culture had for the landscape. The country is now full of these half-built industrial parks and hotels.” KindCountryCultureHouseTakenEthicsExtraordinaryGreedHotelMaterialismFarmersIrelandMillionaire Author:Neil Jordan
“Ireland is becoming like everywhere else, but that's the one I grew up in: the one that's hugely illogical. Rather wonderful, in a way. I never found this oppression of religion and that, but I did enjoy growing up in a culture that didn't need to be rational all of the time.” CultureEnjoyGrowing UpWonderfulRationalOppressionIrelandIllogical Author:Neil Jordan
“I don't know why anybody would come to Ireland chasing a dream or even employment - that's an extraordinary thing for a place where traditionally one was unemployed. For 10 years, people were coming from all over the world looking for employment here, kind of an extraordinary phenomenon. That's stopped now.” PeopleWorldKindDreamExtraordinaryPhenomenonIreland Author:Neil Jordan
“I don't buy into the idea that an Irish writer should write about Ireland, or a gay writer should write about being gay. But when I found the right story, I saw it as an opportunity to write about being a teenager and being gay. Most people, whether you're gay or straight or whatever, have experienced that relationship where one person is much more interested than the other.” PeopleWritingOpportunityGayTeenagerIrelandBeing GayBeing A Teenager Author:John Boyne
“The Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and others, exactly. We have to take a close look at their tax regimes, particularly if we want to move forward with European integration. We can't have a situation in which some EU member states enrich themselves at the expense of their partners.” MovingSituationTaxesMoving ForwardIrelandIntegration Author:Wolfgang Kubicki
“Despite being from Ireland, I've always avoided writing about it, for two reasons. For a very small country, Ireland has produced an astonishing number of literary geniuses, and at some level I probably never felt, having left as a toddler, that I had the right to try and add my voice. That's part of it. But I also didn't want to write something that was the equivalent of the Irish theme pub. You find them all over the world. The idea of producing a novel that might replicate that type of ersatz really set my teeth on edge.” WorldWritingTryingCountryReasonNovelGeniusIrelandToddler Author:Maggie O'Farrell
“When my family moved from Ireland in the 70s, Britain was such a difficult place to be Irish. It was a decade of real social and economic upheaval in Britain. There were strikes, the three-day week, the oil crises, huge inflation, the winter of discontent and, what was it, four Prime Ministers? And relations between Britain and Ireland at that time were at an all-time low. I was born in the year of Bloody Sunday and of course the pub bombings happened in the mid-1970s.” RealDifficultWeekEconomicMy FamilyRelationCrisisMovedWinterSundayIrelandBloodyInflationDiscontent Author:Maggie O'Farrell
“We always planned to move back to the Republic but it never happened, I'm not sure why. My dad is one of those immigrants who never leaves the place he came from. He talks about Ireland all the time. If any Irishman wins at any sort of sport, he sees it as a personal achievement.” MovingWinningSportsDadAchievementMy DadNot SureIreland Author:Maggie O'Farrell
“I was interested in the ripples of feminism passing through Britain and Ireland in the mid-Seventies - how the reverberations of the feminist political movement were being felt in suburban households. So many novels end with a marriage.” PoliticalNovelFeminismFeministIrelandRipple Author:Maggie O'Farrell
“If you grew up Protestant in Ireland, of course, at least in the twentieth century, there was always a contingent that would never really consider you Irish. Meanwhile in Britain you'd never quite be considered British. You fell into a gap in the definitions.” IrelandNever Quit Author:Nick Laird
“I think New York is working its way into my poems. It takes a while for a place to filter its way onto the page, but I've been reading more and more American poetry and I certainly feel it as quite a freeing force. Coming from the formally ordered tradition of poetry in Ireland, I find the expansiveness of American literature freeing in some sense.” ThinkingReadingLiteratureTraditionIrelandAmerican Literature Author:Nick Laird