The finest person to attend Trinity (Modern Times)

Right_Side

Basically, a thread for everyone to debate who is the finest/most successful/inspiring person to ever attend Trinity in modern times (circa. 1900+).

For me it can only be one man Michael O'Leary. Whether he graduated or not is irrelevant, this man is as important to Trinity's reputation as a Nobel prize winner.

His latest and perhaps greatest coup is classic. Amazing insight and ruthless implementation.

Have no doubt he will get his final hurrah i.e. the low cost terminal in Dublin airport.

He should make everyone from Trinity and indeed Ireland proud.

DrIndy

Me, I graduated last year and I'm great.

Indy

Indy wrote:

Me, I graduated last year and I'm great.

I fully expected this post.

Nietzschean

did you just create this thread to post about how great Michael O'Leary is?

Troglodyte

Damn it, I just typed out the most enormous post for this thread, took me ages, and when I went to submit it, it turned out that I had to log in again. When I did, my work was gone. Bollocks :mad:

Anyway, the gist of what I tried to post was that Michael O'Leary does not deserve the accolade of being the greatest Trinity graduate of modern times. That should go to the likes of Douglas Hyde, Edward Carson and Ernest Walton. The first two had a great impact on the historical course of 20th century Ireland, the last was among the first people to split the atom, a pretty important acheivement....

Tricity Bendix

Mary Harney or Liz O'Donnell. Naturally.

Troglodyte

b.ie curious wrote:

Mary Harney or Liz O'Donnell. Naturally.

You party hack, you....

Aero787

I can't believe you would even consider Michael O'Leary! Without a doubt, he is a shrewd businessman, but he is damaging the aviation industry and is destroying the airline pilot career! Maybe you didn't realise that. :eek:

I would say Douglas Hyde in first place, and ETS Walton a very close second.

Andrew 83

Can't say I feel pride at having attended the same college as Michael O'Leary and Edward Carson!

notjim

why all this walton and no beckett?

europerson

Perhaps we ought to change the title of this thread to "Michael's Worship Thread".

Some of the more BESS-familiar among you might get that slight joke.

Tricity Bendix

Aero787 wrote:

and is destroying the airline pilot career!

Off Topic:Considering something like 90% of crashes are caused by pilot error, maybe that isn't such a bad thing.

On Topic: With the benefit of mature reflection, I vote for Oscar Wilde.

DrIndy

Myth wrote:

I fully expected this post.

Thats true because its true

RagShagBill

Courtney Love, obviously.

xeduCat

Come off it, I'd say about ten people even know that O'Leary went to Trinity. Can we rename this thread accordingly? It's nothing to do with famous Trinity people, just an attempt to pay tribute to a 'hero'. Bah!

John

Beckett, Walton and Schroedinger (although he attended as a lecturer). And me and Indy of course.

Aero787

b.ie curious wrote:

Off Topic:Considering something like 90% of crashes are caused by pilot error, maybe that isn't such a bad thing

:rolleyes: It's obvious you don't have a clue.....yes pilot error is a major cause of the few accidents that do occur, but that is completely off the point.

MOL is damaging the profession and the aviation industry. Ryanair management tactics will come back to haunt them in the long-term when their experienced pilots leave for better jobs. Maybe something for all future beancounters to consider.....

It's obviously no surprise that there is such strong opposition to a Ryanair takeover of Aer Lingus.

(Sorry about going off on a tangent, but in all fairness!)

Tricity Bendix

RagShagBill wrote:

Courtney Love, obviously.

wtf, mate!

Aero787, we may be going hopelessly off topic, but your post fails to make any substantive points.

John

Your ma failed to make any substantive points.

notjim

schrodinger wasn't a member of staff; he was at dias.

Nietzschean

John wrote:

Schroedinger (although he attended as a lecturer).

notjim wrote:

schrodinger wasn't a member of staff; he was at dias.

emm so? john is quite correct Schroedinger gave a series of lectures in trinity, which is why we have the schroedinger lecture theatre and a talk every year....

Tricity Bendix

John wrote:

Your ma failed to make any substantive points.

:mad:

There just aren't any decent comebacks...

John

b.ie curious wrote:

:mad:

There just aren't any decent comebacks...

That's what she said.

Nietzschean wrote:

emm so? john is quite correct Schroedinger gave a series of lectures in trinity, which is why we have the schroedinger lecture theatre and a talk every year....

Didn't he escape from the Nazis to Dublin and spent the Emergency lecturing at TCD?

Nietzschean

i honistly can't remember the specifics , was told them at the schroedinger lectuer was at in first year...but thats so long ago now the memory is hazy

Tricity Bendix

Who is this schroedinger and what did he do to deserve a lecture theatre named after him?

Nietzschean

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schroedinger

John

b.ie curious wrote:

Who is this schroedinger and what did he do to deserve a lecture theatre named after him?

Philistine. He's reknowned for making waves in the ocean that is quantum physics

elivsvonchiaing

b.ie curious wrote:

Who is this schroedinger and what did he do to deserve a lecture theatre named after him?

From here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrodinger

"In 1940 he received an invitation to help establish an Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin, Ireland. He became the Director of the School for Theoretical Physics and remained there for 17 years, during which time he became a naturalised Irish citizen"

I never knew M'OL went to trinity until now - it is definitely preferable to include him out of the list of all those mentioned so far!!!!

Tricity Bendix

John wrote:

Philistine. He's reknowned for making waves in the ocean that is quantum physics

I'm an economist!


I wonder how may cats they went through in the box experiment. PETA should protest at the next Nobel prize ceremony.

Even after reading wikipedia, I still don't get it. Einstein thought he was the sh!t, which I suppose says an awful lot.

John

b.ie curious wrote:

I wonder how may cats they went through in the box experiment. PETA should protest at the next Nobel prize ceremony.

It was a thought experiment to explain one of the many abstract notions of quantum physics (i.e. that until you actually observe the result of an event, all of the possibilities that could result from that event exist simultaneously and that it's only in the act of observing that you know what way the numbers have lined up so to speak). So no cats were killed as it was an academic exercise essentially.

Tricity Bendix

John wrote:

It was a thought experiment to explain one of the many abstract notions of quantum physics (i.e. that until you actually observe the result of an event, all of the possibilities that could result from that event exist simultaneously and that it's only in the act of observing that you know what way the numbers have lined up so to speak). So no cats were killed as it was an academic exercise essentially.

Oh! Thats actually rather cool. So basically, without recognising the fact that a result has to be observed, an experiment can have an essentially have entirely contradictory results (a cat being half dead).

Sort of like the tree falling in the woods with no-one else around, only with a small fluffy animal...

John

Yeah, something like that. I'm sure one of the physics/maths heads will point out something wrong in my explanation but **** it, I've had my moment in the sun. I part with a recommendation for some further (mostly readable) reading on this subject: John Gribbin In Search of Schroedinger's Cat

notjim

to repeat, schroedinger was at dias, not at tcd.

he used a lecture theatre in tcd to give an important series of lectures called "what is life" where he tried to show that entropy and other laws of physics had implications for biology. however, he wasn't a tcd lecturer, he was just using the room. lots of people come here and lecture, give seminars etc, but they aren't in any way "from" or "attending" tcd.

for the people who mention walton as someone to admire: what do they admire about him, do they also admire cockroft?

Dave3x

Oscar Wilde. Perhaps make a concession for Bram Stoker too. I know the only thing he did was write Dracula, but Dracula's cool.

notjim

Dave3x wrote:

Oscar Wilde. Perhaps make a concession for Bram Stoker too. I know the only thing he did was write Dracula, but Dracula's cool.

is oscar wilde modern? in which case, how about edmund burke?

europerson

I just want to put on record that
(a) I am an Economics student
and
(b) I know who Schrödinger was.

As for him being "the finest person to attend Trinity" in modern times, I think he could be in with a chance, were it nor for the fact that he didn't attend the University, no?

Stargal

He became the Director of the School for Theoretical Physics and remained there for 17 years, during which time he became a naturalised Irish citizen.

Wow I never knew that!

Back on topic, I'd vote for Andrew83 because he's hot. That's pretty impressive.

Running Bing

Troglodyte wrote:

Edward Carson

The man founded the Ulster volunteer force. I am ashamed to say he went to trinity.

Sangre

The notion that Michael O Leary has damage the aviation industry is completely and utterly laughable.

The_Radiator

He has his own personal taxi, beat that SHROEDINER.

Mary Robinson?

Time Magazine

stargal wrote:

Back on topic, I'd vote for Andrew83 because he's hot.

On those grounds I vote for Emma Stokes.

Troglodyte

Babybing wrote:

The man founded the Ulster volunteer force. I am ashamed to say he went to trinity.

Well I suppose that's the thing about Carson, not too many people are going to be proud of his Trinity associations. However, its impossible to deny that he had a huge influence upon political events in early 20th century Ireland, and what he did has shaped the present to a certain degree. A nice man? Probably not. But a great man? Probably so.

BTW I think he was a big Hist head. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Ibid wrote:

On those grounds I vote for Emma Stokes

Enthusiastically seconded.....

europerson

The_Radiator wrote:

Mary Robinson?

Yeah, the Record seems very enthusuastic about her in their feature on famous graduates.

Also, I don't get this whole Emma Stokes fascination.

Tricity Bendix

europerson wrote:

Yeah, the Record seems very enthusuastic about her in their feature on famous graduates.

Also, I don't get this whole Emma Stokes fascination.

Didn't Robinson abandon this country when the chance of a better job with UN came around? Its a shame, really, as otherwise I would have had a lot of time for her work both at home and abroad.

The_Radiator

The_Radiator wrote:

Mary Robinson?

You just reminded me, I saw our fair Chancellor walking by the 1937 last week.

Sangre

b.ie curious wrote:

Didn't Robinson abandon this country when the chance of a better job with UN came around? Its a shame, really, as otherwise I would have had a lot of time for her work both at home and abroad.

Didn't she leave Ireland in the hopes of helping people and promoting human rights globally? That bitch.

Pet

BTW I think he was a big Hist head.

Really. Imagine that.

Edwardius

John wrote:

Philistine. He's reknowned for making waves in the ocean that is quantum physics

Har har!

Edwardius

The_Radiator wrote:

He has his own personal taxi, beat that SHROEDINER.

Mary Robinson?

He allegedly came up with his best work when he was sack deep in some young one. He'll be gettin my vote for that one!

Troglodyte

Dead Ed wrote:

He allegedly came up with his best work when he was sack deep in some young one. He'll be gettin my vote for that one!

Legend. Wasn't Einstein like that too, apparently he had multiple lovers and affairs. Damn those randy physicists!

Pet wrote:

Really. Imagine that.

Yep, the most famous Unionist of all time came from the Hist. You really couldn't make that one up.....

John

Dead Ed wrote:

Har har!

I'm glad someone got it. *high fives ed*