Patricia Harty, Editor-in-chief of Irish America magazine

I believe I can tell an Irishman from the way he walks - the self-conscious gait, the way he holds his head. I believe I can tell an Irish American down to the generation. I learned that with Americans I have to communicate, and with Irish people so much is left unsaid. Or is said with a nod or a wink or an unspoken gesture. And there's a vulnerability there too, in the knowledge that another Irish person can read me - there is no hiding, they can see right through me. Like all people who have faced danger together, the Irish have a highly developed intuitive sense of each other.