Wednesday 26 December 2012

Quote of the day: An 18th century Englishman's honest opinion of the Irish

"The circumstances which struck me most in the common Irish were, vivacity and a great and eloquent volubility of speech; one would think they could take snuff and talk without tiring till doomsday. They are infinitely more cheerful and lively than anything we commonly see in England, having nothing of that incivility of sullen silence with which so many Englishmen seem to wrap themselves up, as if retiring within their own importance."

A TOUR IN IRELAND, 1776-1779
By Arthur Young


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