British-Irish Relations Quotes

On the Northern Ireland question, for instance, the British and Irish governments prohibit media contact with members of the IRA, but we have always gone ahead, believing in the right to information.

It seems that the historic inability of Britain to comprehend the Irish feelings and sensitivities still remains.

I never met anyone in Ireland who understood the Irish question, except one Englishman who had only been there a week.

Northern Ireland isn't actually part of Great Britain, but we still want it to be part of 'Sofa Watch.'

I went to a very militantly Republican grammar school and, under its influence, began to revolt against the Establishment, on thesimple rule of thumb, highly satisfying to a ten-year-old, that Irish equals good, English equals bad.

I suppose British people generally, probably have very stereotypical notions about the Irish that go back to Victorian times.

An independent Ireland would see its own independence in jeopardy the moment it saw the independence of Britain seriously threatened. Mutual self-interest would make the peoples of these two islands, if both independent, the closest possible allies in a moment of real national danger to either.

The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement was a bilateral one between ourselves and Ireland and did not involve the E.U. at all. It just presupposed common E.U. membership as a facilitator of its successful operation.

England and Ireland are so united that the Irish can sometimes rule England, but can never rule Ireland.

I've always been fascinated with Ireland, especially Northern Ireland, having lived in London in the '80s when there was an Irish republican bombing campaign there.