Irish Neutrality During World War II

Famous quotes containing the words irish, neutrality, world and/or war:

    “The Irish are often nervous about having the appropriate face for the occasion. They have to be happy at weddings, which is a strain, so they get depressed; they have to be sad at funerals, which is easy, so they get happy.”
    —Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)

    “My father and I were always on the most distant terms when I was a boy—a sort of armed neutrality, so to speak. At irregular intervals this neutrality was broken, and suffering ensued; but I will be candid enough to say that the breaking and the suffering were always divided up with strict impartiality between us—which is to say, my father did the breaking, and I did the suffering.”
    —Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    “O world invisible, we view thee, O world intangible, we touch thee, O world unknowable, we know thee, Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!”
    —Francis Thompson (1859–1907)

    “As a war in years of peace
    Or in war an armistice
    Or a father’s death, just so
    Our parting was not visualized....”
    —Philip Larkin (1922–1986)