Irishman

An Irishmanislined with copper, and thebeercorrodesit. But whiskey polishesthe copperand isthesavingof him.

—Twain, Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens

An Irishman's heart is nothing but his imagination.

—Shaw, George Bernard

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 with it nor handle it nor conquer it: he can only sneer at them that do, and be 'agreeable to strangers', like a good-for-nothing woman on the streets.

—Shaw, George Bernard

Of historyand its consequences it may be said: 'Those who can, gloat; those who can't, brood.' Englishmen are born gloaters; Irishmen born brooders. There are, it is true, brooders who take to gloating, and they did much to build the Empire.Yet the brooder-gloater, such as the Irishman turned Englishman, is not, as a human type, altogether a success. He is a little too much on his guard, like an excessivelyassimilated Jew, or a son of Harlem who has decided to'pass'. The past of the Irishman, the Jew, the Negro, is, psychologically, too explosive to be buried.

—Cruise

This would be a grand land if only every Irishman would kill a negro, and be hanged for it.

—Freeman, Edward Augustus

The poor silly-clever Irishman takes off his hat to God's Englishman.

—Shaw, George Bernard