Ryan's Daughter Quotes

Corporal: Good morning. Blowy day?

Maureen: Yes, Corporal - it's the wind!

Corporal: Only want to be friendly, kids.

Irish Girl: Then go back to London, and write us a letter!

Corporal: I don't come from London, love.

Maureen's boyfriend: Go anyway.

Maureen: Aren't the police a dirty lot, hobnobbing with British soldiers!

Const. O'Connor: I heard that, Maureen Cassidy!

Maureen: You were meant to, Constable O'Connor!

Father Collins: I don't know what's the matter with youngsters in this town. Their talk is filthy, their doings are secret, and cruelty for fun.

Thomas Ryan: Unemployment is the matter with them, Father Hugh. It's the deliberate policy for the British government that Irish youngsters shall corrupt in idleness.

Father Collins: It's time you married Rosy. It's time she got a house of her own to clean, floors to scrub.

Thomas Ryan: My princess isn't interested in fellows, Father.

Father Collins: Your "princess" has got fellows enough in here

[taps head]

Father Collins: And fellas running loose in there will do a girl more damage than a barracks full of drunk dragoons.

Thomas Ryan: Well, if it's one of that lot that's fit for her, Father, maybe you'll point him out!

Thomas Ryan: [talking about the Easter Rebellion] If the Germans had an ounce of sense, they'd send us guns to use against the British!

Charles Shaughnessy: That's treason you're talking.

Thomas Ryan: And friends that are listening surely to God!

Father Collins: Good luck to all Irishmen.

Thomas Ryan: Bad luck to the British. Success to the Germans! And -

[British soldiers enter the bar]

Thomas Ryan: And a very good morning to you, Corporal!

Father Collins: [having encountered Rosy walking alone on the beach] Have you nothin' to do?

Rosy Ryan: Precisely that!

Father Collins: Well, Miss Precisely, that's a pity! Doin' nothin's a dangerous occupation!

Thomas Ryan: [Corporal is reading a newspaper article about fighting in France] It seems the Jerries are giving your brave lads out there a terrible scrimmage, then.

Corporal: Aye.

Mr. McCardle: Well, you see Tom, Jerry's a tougher proposition than unarmed Irish children.

Corporal: As far as I know, Mr. McCardle, no children were killed!

[laughs of disbelief]

Corporal: All right, there were. They get you in this uniform, you aim your gun where you're told to point it, and you pull the trigger. And so does Jerry... and so would you!

Captain: Well, if it's all the same to you, sir, I'll be straight off. I've given myself leave.

Randolph Doryan: Yes?

Captain: Embarkation leave. France. Second Batallion, Southeast Lanchasires... they're in the front line. Will you tell me something, man to man? What's it like, really - front line?

[Doryan's face expresses discomfort]

Captain: Aye. Well, I'll find out soon enough. I'm a coward, you see. No, I always have been - from being a lad. I can't master it. Well, I don't suppose I've tried, really. I'd give my left arm to have a touch of what you've got. I hate it! Just the bloody thought of it gives me the shakes. In fact, that's my nightmare, the shakes. I don't mind dying - not if it's quick. Life's not that much, is it? I wouldn't mind having a gammy leg, like you've got - though I don't suppose it's funny. But the shakes? Shellshock? Just shaking and shambling like a... epileptic baby? Nay, I'd rather be dead! I can see what's coming - I'm going to disgrace myself...

Randolph Doryan: You don't know what you'll do. No one does - you don't know what you're doing?

Captain: Really? I read what you did in the newspapers. That weren't no flash in the pan - you'd do the same again, I dare say.

Randolph Doryan: You'd be wrong.

Captain: Well, you've done your bit - someone else's turn, eh?

Father Collins: [Collins has come across the townspeople tormenting Michael] What am I to do with you? What?

Maureen: Ah, sure it's only a bit of fun, Father.

Father Collins: Are you brainless, Maureen Cassidy, or what? Fun. Devil take me if the lot of you's not possessed and damned!

Charles Shaughnessy: [Rose has professed her love to Charles] Rose, you're mistaking a penny mirror for the sun - do you not see that?

Rosy Ryan: I see you always digging a low pit for yourself - when you should be standing on a heap of pride.

Charles Shaughnessy: You coming in here and saying what you did just now is the only cause I've ever had for pride.

Randolph Doryan: [after O'Leary has been arrested] Is there anything you want?

Tim O'Leary: Cigarette.

[Corporal gives him a cigarette]

Randolph Doryan: Anything else?

Tim O'Leary: Yes...

[drags on cigarette]

Tim O'Leary: GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY!

Mrs. McCardle: God bless you, Tim O'Leary!

Thomas Ryan: [the town has turned out to punish Rosy as an informer] But why must it be Rosy?

Mr. McCardle: Because she was fornicating with the fellow!

Charles Shaughnessy: It's not a hangin' matter to be young... but it maybe should be a hangin' matter for a - man of middle age - to - try and steal the youth from a young girl. Especially, a man like me and a - girl like you. You were meant for the wide world, Rose. Not this place, not this. Me - I was born for it. It wouldn't do, Rose. I just know it wouldn't.

Rosy Ryan: So, you - you don't want me, then?

Charles Shaughnessy: [Leans to kiss Rose] Don't want you? Oh...

[They embrace]

Mr. McCardle: [Collins strikes McCardle after the mob strips Rosy] You're taking advantage of your cloth, Father!

Father Collins: That's what it's for.

Rosy Ryan: It will make me a different person, won't it?

Father Collins: Marriage?

Rosy Ryan: No, the satisfaction of the flesh.

Father Collins: Well, that's a gate I've not been through, myself. But, no, it won't make you a different person.

Rosy Ryan: I want it to.

Father Collins: Child, what are you expecting?

[Look up at noisy seagulls flying above]

Father Collins: Wings, is it?

Rosy Ryan: [after her affair with Doryan has become public] You're very kind to me today.

Charles Shaughnessy: Am I?

Rosy Ryan: Yes. Why?

Charles Shaughnessy: Am I not usually kind to you?

[first lines]

Rosy Ryan: Give it over, Michael. Thanks.

[last lines]

Father Collins: Charles? I think you have it in your mind that you and Rosy ought to part. Yeh, I thought as much. Well, maybe you're right and maybe you aren't but I doubt it. And that's my parting gift to you. That doubt.

Father Collins: [closes bus door] God bless.

[bus drives away]

Father Collins: I don't know. I don't know at all. Come on, Michael.

Rosy Ryan: You enjoyed yourself in Dublin, then?

Charles Shaughnessy: Well, I did and I didn't. A conference of village school teachers, you know, is not exactly a...

Rosy Ryan: Bacchanalia?

Charles Shaughnessy: Bacchanalia, precisely.

Charles Shaughnessy: Why don't you see, Rose, I only taught you about Byron and Beethoven and Captain Blood. I'm not one of them fellows, me self.

Rosy Ryan: I'm not daft, you know.

Charles Shaughnessy: But, you're terribly young.

Father Collins: [Explaining why God ordains the sacrament of marriage] And thirdly, for the satisfaction of the flesh. Are you scared of that?

Rosy Ryan: Yes.

Father Collins: It should be nothing to be scared of Rosy. A function of the body.

Rosy Ryan: I suppose all girls is a bit scared before.

Father Collins: Oh, and fellas too.

Rosy Ryan: Yes?

Charles Shaughnessy: You're a wonderful girl, Rose.

Rosy Ryan: No. No, I'm not.

Rosy Ryan: You always think the best of people, don't you?

Charles Shaughnessy: Why not?

Father Collins: Where have you been?

Rosy Ryan: Ridin' - with Major Doryan.

Father Collins: You're bold as brass! You think that's a suitable connection for a decent Irish wife?

Rosy Ryan: I think that is for my - husband to say, Father.