“Irish is our synonym for spirit, for spunk, for the refusal to buckle under to unreasonable authority, to fight against long odds, fight against power, to do the brave thing. It’s the Irish in him. Even when this person was never known to have any Irish in them whatsoever. That’s what Irishness means in the American Midwest.”
—Garrison Kiellor
(News From Lake Wobegon, from Dublin, 3/4/2000)