O Ireland, isn't it grand you look -- Like a bride in her rich adornin'? And with all the pent-up love of my heart I bid you the top o' the mornin'! -- John Locke, "The Exile's Return" We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English. -- Winston Churchill My one claim to originality among Irishmen is that I have never made a speech -George Moore, author Everywhere in Irish prose there twinkles and peers the merry eye and laugh of a people who had little to laugh about in real life. -- Diarmuid Russell O Ireland my first and only love Where Christ and Caesar are hand in glove. -- James Joyce There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting. -- John Synge Where there are Irish there's loving and fighting And when we stop either, it's Ireland no more! -- Rudyard Kipling. For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad. -- G. K. Chesterton