When Christianity was brought to her shores it was received with a joy and eagerness, and held with a tenacity of which there is hardly such another … - Éamon de Valera

It is my considered opinion that in the fullness of time history will record the greatness of Michael Collins and it will be recorded at my expense.

All history is man's efforts to realise ideals.

Ireland's music is of a singular beauty. Based on pentatonic scale its melodies reach back to a period anterior to the dawn of musical history. It stands pre-eminent amongst the music of the Celtic nations. It is characterised by perfection of form and variety of melodic content. It is particularly rich in tunes that imply exquisite sensitiveness. The strange fitfulness of the lamentations and love songs, the transition from gladness to pathos, have thrilled the experts, and made them proclaim our music the most varied and the most poetical in the world. Equal in rhythmic variety are our dance tunes—spirited and energetic in keeping with the temperament of our people.