A world without Ireland

Lapin

How different would the world as we know it be today if nature left a gap in the Atlantic where Ireland exists ?

If Ireland or her people and diaspora never were ?

Would the world be a different place today if Napoleon never had to face an army under the leadership of Wellington at Waterloo ?

How different would places as far away as Argentina and Chile be today if not for the influence of people like William Brown and Bernardo O'Higgins ? Not to mention Che Guevara in the same region years later.

There would have been no JFK (and no Lee Harvey Oswald to shoot him either). No Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama and at least 18 other occupants of the White House over the years. The White House itself wouldn't exist as the architect James hoban was Irish.

No Jim Callaghan or Tony Blair in Downing Street. Indeed there would be no Downing Street either as Sir George Downing who built the place was also Irish !

30% of the population of Australia wouldn't be around.

The world Music and Movies would be denied the talents of people like The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Smiths, Oasis, George Clooney, John Wayne, Matt Dillon Mel Gibson Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Moore and countless others.

There would be no Muhammad Ali, Henry Cooper, John McEnroe, Celtic FC but on the bright side there would be no Wayne Rooney either !

Princes' William and Harry wouldn't exist as their mother, Diana was of Irish descent. In fact their cousins, Beatrice and Eugenie wouldn't be around either as their mother, Sarah Ferguson's lot also hailed from these shores. Although its likely that the whole institution of the British monarchy (and history) would have been altered centuries ago in any case, as the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim would have had to have been fought elsewhere !

No Ford cars. No Duty Free. No Titanic. No Guinness and Whiskey to drown the shamrock on a non existant St Patrick's Day. No Oscar Statuettes, or Dunlop tyres. Irish Pubs, dancing, stew, coffee, jokes...........................

No Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines in the US and inspiration for low cost airlines everywhere including Ryanair.

I haven't even mentioned how much poorer the world of literature would be without us.

I'm not gonna include some of our scientific discoveries and inventions as I believe things like the Submarine, Ejector seat and Richter scale would have come along eventually elsewhere. But who knows ?

Of course we've also given the world its fair share of blaggards, chancers and gangsters, but who hasn't? And on the bright side there would be no Tubridy asking everyone about their Irish roots.


Any other ideas or opinions on how different the world would be today if it wasn't for Ireland and the Irish ?

Maximus Alexander

You could say the same about almost any country.

Quirk_Douglas

Lapin wrote: »

How different would the world as we know it be today if nature left a gap in the Atlantic where Ireland exists ?

If Ireland or her people and diaspora never were ?

Would the world be a different place today if Napoleon never had to face an army under the leadership of Wellington at Waterloo ?

How different would places as far away as Argentina and Chile be today if not for the influence of people like William Brown and Bernardo O'Higgins ? Not to mention Che Guevara in the same region years later.

There would have been no JFK (and no Lee Harvey Oswald to shoot him either). No Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama and at least 18 other occupants of the White House over the years. The White House itself wouldn't exist as the architect James hoban was Irish.

No Jim Callaghan or Tony Blair in Downing Street. Indeed there would be no Downing Street either as Sir George Downing who built the place was also Irish !

30% of the population of Australia wouldn't be around.

The world Music and Movies would be denied the talents of people like The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Smiths, Oasis, George Clooney, John Wayne, Matt Dillon Mel Gibson Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Moore and countless others.

There would be no Muhammad Ali, Henry Cooper, John McEnroe, Celtic FC but on the bright side there would be no Wayne Rooney either !

Princes' William and Harry wouldn't exist as their mother, Diana was of Irish descent. In fact their cousins, Beatrice and Eugenie wouldn't be around either as their mother, Sarah Ferguson's lot also hailed from these shores. Although its likely that the whole institution of the British monarchy (and history) would have been altered centuries ago in any case, as the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim would have had to have been fought elsewhere !

No Ford cars. No Duty Free. No Titanic. No Guinness and Whiskey to drown the shamrock on a non existant St Patrick's Day. No Oscar Statuettes, or Dunlop tyres. Irish Pubs, dancing, stew, coffee, jokes...........................

No Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines in the US and inspiration for low cost airlines everywhere including Ryanair.

I haven't even mentioned how much poorer the world of literature would be without us.

I'm not gonna include some of our scientific discoveries and inventions as I believe things like the Submarine, Ejector seat and Richter scale would have come along eventually elsewhere. But who knows ?

Of course we've also given the world its fair share of blaggards, chancers and gangsters, but who hasn't? And on the bright side there would be no Tubridy asking everyone about their Irish roots.


Any other ideas or opinions on how different the world would be today if it wasn't for Ireland and the Irish ?

You pretty much covered everything in your post there.

Lapin

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

You could say the same about almost any country.

I could, but this is boards.ie

Lapin

Quirk_Douglas wrote: »

You pretty much covered everything in your post there.

No, I forgot Kerrygold butter and Tayto. :eek:

fkt

AH HERE...

Rabies

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

You could say the same about almost any country.

Lapin wrote: »

I could, but this is boards.ie

I'm only posting to add a winking smiley

Maximus Alexander

Rabies wrote: »

I'm only posting to add a winking smiley

GeorgeClooney

Lapin wrote: »

How different would the world as we know it be today if nature left a gap in the Atlantic where Ireland exists ?

I'm pretty sure that gap would've been filled up with water.

eddiethornton

If only this could happen. Wipe the entire god forsaken sh1thole out and start again.

Lapin

eddiethornton wrote: »

If only this could happen. Wipe the entire god forsaken sh1thole out and start again.

^^^^^^^

fkt wrote: »

AH HERE...

Killer Wench

A world without Jesus.

Can you imagine if there had been no Jesus...


Eh f*ck it.


I'm too lazy to write that sh*t out.

aaronjumper

No gingers. :pac:

tonycascarino

No Maggie Thatcher, John Major, David Cameron
No Charles De Gaulle
No Jimi Hendrix
No Charlie Chaplin
No Elvis Presley
No Ned Kelly

stek

No Barak Obama!

starlit

Well if that were the case we'd either be part of Iceland, Spain/Portugal/France, USA, Canada or Britain! We probably wouldn't be called Ireland.

Valetta

tonycascarino wrote: »

No Ned Kelly

Excellent.

I've been trying to get rid of mine for years.

dollypet

............no kerrygold?
OH THE HUMANITY!!!!

Sarky

I like to imagine it would look something like this.

spoofilyj

And no Barry's Tea :eek:

castletownman

Well at least there'd be no self-depreciation or begrudgery in the world!

PirateShampoo

Im sure the world would keep on turning just fine.

starlit

There be no GAA!

starlit

No Guinness...no barrys tea or no kerrymaid/low low....no st paddy's day!?

FloatingVoter

Well, you'll lose the Beatles. On the other hand Haughey, Ahern and Cowen cease to exist.

Leftist

doovdela wrote: »

There be no GAA!

be worth it then.

The world without ireland now would be about as important as the world without slovakia or burma.

the world without ireland historically would be a world where they have to find cheap emigrant labour from other sources.

Europe without ireland now would mean it wouldn't be in as much trouble.

The delusion about our percieved importance to the world is one of the most hilarious aspects of irish culture.

Someone on the israel thread asking where our government is on this

citytillidie

No boards

starlit

Leftist wrote: »

be worth it then.

The world without ireland now would be about as important as the world without slovakia or burma.

the world without ireland historically would be a world where they have to find cheap emigrant labour from other sources.

Europe without ireland now would mean it wouldn't be in as much trouble.

The delusion about our percieved importance to the world is one of the most hilarious aspects of irish culture.

Someone on the israel thread asking where our government is on this

There be no rugby for our provinces I'd say as we'd be routing for another country I'd say....

I don't know how would the US, Britain and Oz feel being without Ireland in the historical sense then?? On the basis of Europe then we would not matter much.

aaronjumper

citytillidie wrote: »

No boards

Sweet mother of god, what would we all do?
Oh thats right we would be somewhere else or not exist.
Don't scare me like that.

purplepanda

No British Empire then..............:pac:

Green Diesel

tonycascarino wrote: »

No Maggie Thatcher, John Major, David Cameron
No Charles De Gaulle
No Jimi Hendrix
No Charlie Chaplin
No Elvis Presley
No Ned Kelly

There would still be a Tony Cascarino

FloatingVoter

Ireland has never produced a singular figure who shaped the world for good or bad. No Alexander, Caesar, Hitler or Peter the Great. The hint being we have never had an empire and shaped world events - they have shaped us.
But being irrelevant is no bad thing - we seriously missed out on a lot of wars that the above named started or were involved in.
Well, we did have the Duke of Wellington but he disliked that.

Cabaal

They'd be no white house as the chap that designed it was from Co Kilkenny,

There may not be a Coca Cola brand as one of the guys that helped start it..his family were from Ireland..again Co Kilkenny,

starlit

What about the greats from 1800's-1920's? Other than St patrick himself...even if he were welsh!

wonton

There would be almost certainly no twilight.





cheers for that bram.

Dicky Pride

There would be no dicky Pride. The world needs to have some dicky pride.

They might have got someone else to build the White House.

Or are you saying the POTUS would be sleeping on the streets because they couldn't find an Irishman to build him a gaff. Far fetched I reckon.

LincolnsBeard

Deleted User wrote: »

They might have got someone else to build the White House.

Or are you saying the POTUS would be sleeping on the streets because they couldn't find an Irishman to build him a gaff. Far fetched I reckon.

He's saying there would be no white house. There would obviously be a different HQ for the President, but it wouldn't be as it is now.

MaxSteele

No bleerin fordineers takin oirish jobs eedaar

Davidius

There'd be no me and what a terrible world that would be.

Ghost Buster

Christianity may not have survived in Europe. So its not all good.;)

If the island of Ireland dissappeared in an instant, wouldnt the void cause a tsunami of some sort?

Great Britain, France, Northern Spain and Portugal would be hard hit.
Isle of man is Fkuced!

starlit

The isle of man would likely disappear with Ireland in tow! And maybe Iceland/Britain but maybe not britain....

Ghost Buster

doovdela wrote: »

The isle of man would likely disappear with Ireland in tow! And maybe Iceland/Britain but maybe not britain....

And The Gathering would be a disaster

SEPT 23 1989

Wales would be washed away

Where To

Imagine there's no Irish
I wonder if you can
No O'Neills or Gallaghers
No sons of Irishman.

Imagine there's no Eire
It's easy if you try
No roads below us
Above us ryanairless sky.

Yoohoohooohooo
You may say I'm a Paddy
But we are the chosen ones.
I Hope some daaaaaahahay you'll recogonise us
As without us there would be no sun.

GUIGuy

These are but some of the things invented/advanced by Irish people.

Milk chocolate - Sloane
Flavoured Crisps - Murphy
Chemical Fertiliser - Murray
Periscope - Grubb
Perforated stamps - Archer
Stethoscope - Leared
Endoscope - Cruise
Milk of Magnesia - Murray
Tyres - Dunlop
Induction coil, Lead acid batteries & electro magnet - Callan
Submarine - Holland
Syringe & local anesthetics - Meath hospital
Boyles law - Boyle
Boolean math - Boole
quaternions - Hamilton
hangmans drop - Haughton
Splitting the atom - Walton
Colour photography - Berkeley
Kelvin temperature scale - Kelvin
Fluid dynamics - George Stokes
Acetylene - Edmund Davy
Why is the sky blue - John Tyndall
Tractor - Ferguson
Steam Turbine - Parsons
Ejector seat - Martin
Cancer treatment - Joly

Not bad really, pity we value our artists & celebrities and not those who have made real material contributions to humanity.

3ndahalfof6

Your lapin mad.

Skid

The Olympics Opening Ceremony Organisers would have an awkward situation, as Iraq would be followed by their good friends Israel.

flutterflye

Jedward :eek:

If there were no Ireland, would we not still exist, just some place else?
And is there no Island of Ireland, or just the Republic?

dollypet

Skid wrote: »

The Olympics Opening Ceremony Organisers would have an awkward situation, as Iraq would be followed by their good friends Israel.

Trust the irish to get in the middle of a row!:cool: