Fatherhood Quote by James Cagney

Cagney slips a neat bit of ethnic romance through the side door of a wisecrack. He starts with lineage - "totally Irish" - as if he is about to deliver a dutiful heritage story, the kind celebrities get nudged into on talk shows. Instead, he undercuts the expected reverence with a tourist's quick, almost tossed-off verdict: Ireland is "very much like New York". For a New York actor whose screen persona ran on streetwise speed, the comparison flatters both places at once. It also quietly re-centers identity: Ireland may be the origin myth, but New York is the lived truth.

The punchline isn't really geography; it's desire. Calling Ireland "a beautiful country" is the safe compliment. The real energy is in the immediate pivot to people: "both the women and men were good-looking". It's disarmingly egalitarian, slightly provocative for its era, and basically cinematic - Cagney evaluating the scene like a casting director. The line makes ancestry feel sensual rather than solemn: being Irish isn't a lecture, it's a vibe, a face, a spark.

There's also a showman's dodge here. By praising attractiveness, he avoids politics, poverty, history - all the heavy freight Ireland can carry. He converts a complicated homeland into an appealing set, then ties it back to New York's own myth: the immigrant city where old-world roots get remade into charisma. The intent is charm, but the subtext is that ethnicity, in America, often survives best as style.