Irish Diplomacy: The ability to tell someone to go to hell, so that he looks forward to the trip

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

1. Seamus Heaney - from Whatever You Say Say Nothing

https://allpoetry.com/poem/11014161-from-Whatever-You-Say-Say-Nothing-by-Seamus-Heaney

from Whatever You Say Say Nothing

I'm writing this just after an encounter
With an English journalist in search of 'views
On the Irish thing'. I'm back in winter
Quarters where bad news is no longer news,

Where media men and stringers sniff and point,
Where zoom lenses, recorders and coiled leads
Litter the hotels. The times are out of joint
But I incline as much to rosary beads

As to the jottings and analyses
of politicians and newspapermen
Who've scribbled down the long campaign from gas
And protest to gelignite and sten,

Who proved upon their pulses 'escalate',
'Backlash' and 'crackdown', 'the provisional wing',
'Polarization' and 'long-standing hate'.
Yet I live here, I live here too, I sing,

LOTS MORE……