Irish Diaspora Quotes

All my people are from Ireland. I was born in Manchester, but I am Irish.

Here are a vast number of people shipping off for Pennsylvania and Boston. Here are 3 ships at Larne, 5 at Derry, 2 at Coleraine, 3 at Belfast, and 4 at Sligo. I’m assured that within these eight years there are gone above 30 thousand people out of Ulster and the low part of Connacht.

I've got a huge family back in Ireland, and I've made loads of movies in Ireland.

On my mum Marie's side, my nana was from the Republic of Ireland, and my granddad was from the north. Lots of families in Manchester have strong Irish connections, but it never occurred to me to play for anyone other than England.

More Irishmen died fighting for Britain in World War I than died fighting against her in all of Ireland's bids for independence combined.

I'm crazy about Dublin. If you went back 3,000 years in my ancestry you wouldn't find a drop of Irish blood in the veins, but I love the place.

I'm one hundred percent Irish, and I'm very proud that I'm Irish American, though I don't know exactly where my ancestors came from. I just know County Cork.

I've got my roots in Northern Ireland - my biological father's side of the family were from Belfast.

Those who came to the United States didn't realize they were white until they got here. They were told they were white. They had to learn they were white. An Irish peasant coming from British imperial abuse in Ireland during the potato famine in the 1840s, arrives in the United States. You ask him or her what they are. They say, "I am Irish." No, you're white. "What do you mean, I am white?" And they point me out. "Oh, I see what you mean. This is a strange land."

Irish people never think we're Irish. Americans think we're European or French.

Emigration is the great fact of Irish social history.

I think there's something about the Irish experience - that we had to have a sense of humor or die.

They say that immigrants don’t speak English. So? Who cares. Even the Irish learned English after a while.

It takes three-quarters of the world in these days to hold the Irish family, and is pleasant to know that some of the elder sons of the family are considered by their discriminating fellow citizens worthy to be entrusted with the liberties and fortunes of their adopted countries.

Oh, the Irish were building the railroads down through Mexico, through Chihuahua. They finished the railroads when they finished out in the West Coast, and they went down and put the trains into Mexico.

The Irish are the niggers of Europe, lads.

For those of us who are fortunate to share an Irish ancestry, we take great pride in the contributions that Irish-Americans.

My nan and granddad are from Cork.

The Irishman in English literature may be said to have been born with an apology in his mouth.

Not in vain is Ireland pouring itself all over the earth. Divine Providence has a mission for her children to fulfill; though a mission unrecognized by political economists. There is ever a moral balance preserved in the universe, like the vibrations of the pendulum. The Irish, with their glowing hearts and reverent credulity, are needed in this cold age of intellect and skepticism.

The Irish are people who will never have leaders, for at the great moment they always desert them. They have produced one skeleton--Parnell--never a man.

Next to President of the United States, Ambassador to Ireland is surely one of the best jobs an Irish American can hold.

If you're Irish, it doesn't matter where you go - you'll find family.

My ancestors came from Co Roscommon, transported to Van Diemen's Land for stealing food.

My mom's half-Irish, and my dad's half-Irish. We don't know much about my mom's side, but my dad's mom came from Belfast and married my grandfather, who was from Wales.