There are the hard facts and there are lies.

But in between there's a lot of room for other things that aren't exactly lies or hard facts. I like to avoid going to extremes myself, so that tends to be where I feel at home. And I think most of the time, that's where the truth is found. Or you might say, that's where the truth lies.

What I mean is, if you're telling a story, you are telling it for a reason, so you will likely need to adjust it a bit so that it makes more sense. If changing a few details and modifying the facts helps that, it may even be more truthful. (And it's interesting that "telling a story" can mean "telling a lie".)

I don't think there's any real difference of degree between men and women when it comes to telling the truth and improving the truth. There may be differences in how we go about doing it, and why we do it, and when we do it - but I'm not even sure about that.

As for the Irish bit - I think a lot of that comes from the fact that the Irish language doesn't have the words "Yes" and "No". And that carries over into people from an Irish background who are generations removed from talking Gaelic. And when you are always saying "It is" or "It isn't" instead of "Yes" and "No", that can sound evasive to some people. And it can help you be a bit evasive when you need to be...