List of Political Catch Phrases - Ireland

Ireland

  • An Irish solution to an Irish problem – Charles Haughey
  • A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People – James Craig
  • "The sort of smug know-all commentator... I suppose if anything annoys me, that annoys me... I could instance a load of fuckers whose throat I'd cut, and push over the nearest cliff, but there's no percentage in that." – Former Taoiseach Charles Haughey speaking to Hot Press writer John Waters in 1984.
  • "I am absolutely pissed off..." – Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, 1998
  • "No problem" – Brian Lenihan
  • "On mature recollection..." – Brian Lenihan during the 1990 Irish presidential election
  • "Let them, fuck it, we'll say no more." – Minister for Defence Michael Smith, while deputising for the Tánaiste one Thursday morning.
  • "I am sick of answering questions about the fucking peace process." – Taoiseach John Bruton famously upsetting a local radio reporter in Cork for which he later apologised.
  • "Crap, total crap." – Taoiseach Albert Reynolds to dismiss claims that he never spoke to his coalition partner from the PDs, Des O'Malley. Described as a slip of the tongue by press secretary, Sean Duignan, when initially used in an interview with the Sunday Tribune, but later revived for RTÉ and elsewhere.
  • "With all due sincerity and in the most unparliamentary language, fuck you Deputy Stagg, fuck you." – Green Party TD Paul Gogarty's outburst directed at Labour Party TD Emmet Stagg during an Irish Budget debate.
  • "We have turned a corner." – Fianna Fáil TD and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, Jnr's comment on the Irish economy during the Irish Budget debate.
  • I suppose I'm going a bit too far when I say this but I'd like to ask Mr Quinlivan is the brothel still closed? - Minister of Defense Willie O'Dea February 2009 accusation against a local election candidate Maurice Quinlivan. In less than a year, O'Dea would be forced to resign as Minister after submitting an affidavit denying he made the remarks.
  • "There was a confluence of events" – Taoiseach Brian Cowen defending his poor performance during a radio interview on the morning of a Fianna Fáil pre-parliamentary event on 14 September 2010.
  • "There was a hoarseness in my voice" – Taoiseach Brian Cowen defending his performance on the same occasion.
  • "Fiction" – Fianna Fáil TD Dermot Ahern denying rumours of an European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout of Ireland in late 2010. The bailout occurred shortly after Ahern made his denial.

Read more about this topic:  List Of Political Catch Phrases

Famous quotes containing the word ireland:

    The tragedy of Northern Ireland is that it is now a society in which the dead console the living.
    Jack Holland (b. 1947)

    They call them the haunted shores, these stretches of Devonshire and Cornwall and Ireland which rear up against the westward ocean. Mists gather here, and sea fog, and eerie stories. That’s not because there are more ghosts here than in other places, mind you. It’s just that people who live hereabouts are strangely aware of them.
    Dodie Smith, and Lewis Allen. Roderick Fitzgerald (Ray Milland)

    In Ireland they try to make a cat cleanly by rubbing its nose in its own filth. Mr. Joyce has tried the same treatment on the human subject. I hope it may prove successful.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)