When Irish eyes are smiling, sure ’tis like a morn in spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter you can hear the angels sing,
When Irish hearts are happy all the world seems bright and gay,
And when Irish eyes are smiling, sure, they steal your heart away.
— Chauncey Olcott and George Graff, Jr. (lyrics), Ernest R. Ball (music)

 

For ’tis green, green, green, where the ruined towers are gray,
And it’s green, green, green, all the happy night and day;
Green of leaf and green of sod, green of ivy on the wall,
And the blessed Irish shamrock with the fairest green of all.
—  Mary Elizabeth Blake

 

“We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.” — Winston Churchill

“Some mornings you wake up and think, gee I look handsome today. Other days I think, what am I doing in the movies? I wanna go back to Ireland and drive a forklift.” — Liam Neeson

“Ireland sober is Ireland stiff.” — James Joyce

“What’s the use of being Irish if the world doesn’t break your heart?” — John F. Kennedy

“Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still, For poetry makes nothing happen”  — W. H. Auden

“Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” — William Butler Yeats

“If you’re lucky enough to be Irish, you’re lucky enough!”  (Irish saying)