Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
Seamus HeaneyRead
There's never going to be a united Ireland, you know.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that the prospect of a united Ireland may always remain unfulfilled.
Seamus Heaney's quote reflects a sense of realism regarding the complex political landscape in Ireland. It acknowledges the deep-rooted divisions and historical tensions that have made the idea of a united Ireland seem elusive, suggesting that despite aspirations, unity may not be attainable in the foreseeable future.
In practice
During a discussion about the political history of Ireland.
Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
What I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar.
The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don't have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them.
If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance.
In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example.
I think that water is immediately interesting. It's just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you.
There is one transcendant advantage belonging to the province of the State governments . . . -I mean the ordinary administration of criminal and civil justice.
Did the mass of men know the actual selfishness and injustice of their rulers, not a government would stand a year. - The world would foment with revolution.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
Damn your principles! Stick to your party.
Greece wishes to be part of the eurozone, but it must, of course, go through with the necessary reforms to make this happen.
According to Lenin, socialism and democracy are indivisible.... The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it unites socialism with democracy and revives the Leninist concept of socialist construction both in theory and in practice. We want more socialism and, therefore, more democracy.
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