My wife and I both come from Irish families. There are two kinds of Irish families: the hitting kind and the kidding kind. If youre fortunate – and both of us are – you come from the kidding kind of Irish family. – P. J. ORourke
A preoccupied family: they none of them threw themselves into the interests of the rest, but each ploughed his or her own furrow. Their thoughts, their little passions and hopes and desires, all ran along separate lines. Family life is like this—animated, but collateral. – Rose Macaulay, Daisy & Daphne, 1928