The best friends I have ever had in my life are Irish. On one of my first assignments for The Irish Times 16 years ago, I was asked to talk to US women who had settled in Ireland. I've always been an outsider from the day I was born, which is ideal considering my profession. I remember Irish Times editor emeritus Douglas Gageby saying that a journalist must always be an outsider. Once you become a member of the club, you can never see it clearly.
Some people say that Ireland is a club.
I've spoken to many returned Irish emigrants who feel that because they left and returned, they can never belong again. They feel bitter that they haven't been accepted into what they see as a cosy, homogenous, self-satisfied clique. I don't see it that way. Well, it might help if we understand them a little better - the newcomers, I mean. Knight herself, a novelist who grew up in the UK and married Irish journalist Des Crowley, feels that the Irish are very warm on the surface, but too private to get to know intimately.