Above all else, deep in my soul, I'm a tough Irishwoman.

I come from an Irish Catholic family, and hell-raising is part of the DNA.

There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting.

I was raised in a very old fashioned Ireland where women were reared to be lovely.

That's what the holidays are for - for one person to tell the stories and another to dispute them. Isn't that the Irish way?