Bernadette Devlin Quotes & Sayings

We were born into an unjust system; we are not prepared to grow old in it. — Bernadette Devlin

There are no illegitimate children, only illegitimate parents-if the term is to be used at all. — Bernadette Devlin

Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win. — Bernadette Devlin

Basically, I have no place in organized politics. By coming to the British Parliament, I've allowed the people to sacrifice me at the top and let go the more effective job I should be doing at the bottom. — Bernadette Devlin

Should an anthropologist or a sociologist be looking for a bizarre society to study, I would suggest he come to Ulster. It is one of Europe's oddest countries. Here, in the middle of the twentieth century, with modern technology transforming everybody's lives, you find a medieval mentality that is being dragged painfully into the eighteenth century by some forward-looking people. — Bernadette Devlin

Irish Catholics are more interested in the rosary beads than in the rosary ... — Bernadette Devlin

I went to a very militantly Republican grammar school and, under its influence, began to revolt against the Establishment, on thesimple rule of thumb, highly satisfying to a ten-year-old, that Irish equals good, English equals bad. — Bernadette Devlin

Free love is too expensive. — Bernadette Devlin

In Northern Ireland, if you don't have basic Christianity, rather than merely religion, all you get out of the experience of living is bitterness. — Bernadette Devlin

The Irish aren't great singers, but they have great songs. — Bernadette Devlin

Among the best traitors Ireland has ever had, Mother Church ranks at the very top, a massive obstacle in the path to equality and freedom. She has been a force for conservatism ... to ward off threats to her own security and influence. — Bernadette Devlin

One American said that the most interesting thing about Holy Ireland was that its people hate each other in the name of Jesus Christ. And they do! — Bernadette Devlin

It did not seem to me that prejudice, poverty, discrimination, repression and racism were confined to the North of Ireland. I could see them everywhere I spoke and still cannot comprehend the mentality that argues that I should have pretended not to see them, because it wasn't my business. — Bernadette Devlin

To gain what is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else. — Bernadette Devlin

But I make a distinction between the doctrines of the Church, which matter, and the structure invented by half a dozen Italians who got to be pope and which is of very little use to anybody. — Bernadette Devlin

I think my life will always be worth living, though I don't imagine it being very easy. — Bernadette Devlin

I'm not good enough to be a saint and not bad enough to be interesting. — Bernadette Devlin

I got quite bored, serving in the bar. Since I was there, the customers wouldn't talk about women, and with half their subject matter denied them, it was: horses, silence; horses, silence. — Bernadette Devlin

My function in life is not to be a politician in Parliament: it is to get something done. — Bernadette Devlin

It wasn't long before people discovered the final horrors of letting an urchin into Parliament. — Bernadette Devlin