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The greatest Irish person...

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13567…10

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    #62
    Noveight
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,813 ✭✭✭Noveight


    The story of Brian Boru is one which always fascinates me. Incomparable I suppose to more modern suggestions like Tom Crean or TF Meagher, but worth a mention in passing.


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    #63
    RiderOnTheStorm
    Registered Users Posts: 2,108 ✭✭✭RiderOnTheStorm


    +1 for Tom Crean. The greatest Antarctic explorer.

    Msg Flaherty. Who saved thousands from the Nazis in WW2. Sometimes called the Irish Schneider. Nuff said.

    John Tyndale. Irish physicist back in the day. At the forefront of his field and born in tiny Carlow village of Leighlinbridge. (Same village that claims ownership of the only living thing after the Battle of Little Big Horn.... The horse, Comanche )


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    #64
    Galwayguy35
    Registered Users Posts: 16,433 ✭✭✭✭Galwayguy35


    Day Lewin wrote: »
    Going with Casement, too. Just read that biography - fictionalised, but a true story.
    He was an impressive fighter for human rights in exploited colonies, defending local enslaved workers in Congo and in S. America.
    AND he threw his brilliant career away to share in the 1916 Rising as best he could. And here we are now, a Republic.
    A complex, courageous, righteous man. Troubled and imperfect, as we all are. But, truly great.

    The rumours that he liked to have sex with young boys from the countries he visited would cancel out all those good points about him if they're true.


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    #65
    A Little Pony
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,875 ✭✭✭A Little Pony


    Edward Carson. Created his own state, created his own army, great Hurley player.


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    #66
    Galwayguy35
    Registered Users Posts: 16,433 ✭✭✭✭Galwayguy35


    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Edward Carson. Created his own state, created his own army, great Hurley player.

    Seriously?


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    #67
    A Little Pony
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,875 ✭✭✭A Little Pony


    Galwayguy35 wrote: »
    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Edward Carson. Created his own state, created his own army, great Hurley player.

    Seriously?
    Why not?


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    #68
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »
    And yet people still voted for him.

    Face it as much as people in Ireland like to blame the Church for everything that is wrong with the country the people empowered the politicians who allowed them to have undue influence on the country and really it's our own fault.It isn't as if people had no knowledge of what the church was at and yet they allowed them to do what they did.It's not as if the church were armed and there was nothing people could do to stop them.

    Keeping Ireland out of WW2 was one very good thing De Valera did for the country.

    The old chestnuts about the Church etc. etc. McQuaid was bosom buddies with Cosgrave and Ireland was a very Catholic country, the idea that Dev should have stood up to the Church is laughable. He actually diluted their influence in the Constitution, and of course showed far more ability to stand up to them in the aftermath of the Mother and Child scheme than those across the floor from him.

    As for the idea that he started the Civil War, men like O'Connor and Mellows were certainly not led by Dev. Again, laughably simplistic history.

    He kept us out of WWII and also ensured that we did not go the way of extremism, left or right, like other countries in 1930s Europe.


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    #69
    Galwayguy35
    Registered Users Posts: 16,433 ✭✭✭✭Galwayguy35


    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Why not?

    Do you really need to ask that?

    Obviously your side think he's great not so much the rest of Ireland though.


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    #70
    A Little Pony
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,875 ✭✭✭A Little Pony


    Galwayguy35 wrote: »
    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Why not?

    Do you really need to ask that?

    Obviously your side think he's great not so much the rest of Ireland though.
    He loved Ireland. People just aren't educated on him.


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    #71
    Realt Dearg Sec
    Registered Users Posts: 10,857 ✭✭✭✭Realt Dearg Sec


    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Galwayguy35 wrote: »
    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Edward Carson. Created his own state, created his own army, great Hurley player.

    Seriously?
    Why not?
    Because we have no evidence he was a great hurler, only the opinions of unionists, who presumably never saw him play and don't understand anything about the game.

    All that other stuff is essentially a footnote to his hurling career anyway.


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    #72
    Realt Dearg Sec
    Registered Users Posts: 10,857 ✭✭✭✭Realt Dearg Sec


    To paraphrase Ireland's greatest person, eamonn dunphy, he was a good hurler, not a great hurler.


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    #73
    munsterlegend
    Registered Users Posts: 6,163 ✭✭✭munsterlegend


    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Edward Carson. Created his own state, created his own army, great Hurley player.

    And a fluent Irish speaker. If only other unionists could realise they actually are Irish.


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    #74
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,714 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    Edmund Burke invented democracy one sunny afternoon between the French and American revolutions.

    Ludwig Wittingstein grew up in Glasnevin cemetery and later invented the idea of having ideas.

    So it's between them and the FÁS girl.


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    #75
    FTA69
    Registered Users Posts: 9,252 ✭✭✭FTA69


    Tom Barry's achievements are also amazing when you consider that at the age of 23 he led the IRA's most effective fighting flying columns in the country and commanded some of the largest scale engagements with the British Army and the Tans. During the Kilmichael ambush he stood in the middle of the road and fired the first shots at point blank range toward a convoy of heavily armed soldiers. His exploits at Crossbarry are apparently still studied at US Army officer training centres. When I was in Ireland I knew older Republicans who would have known Barry personally and apparently he suffered awfully in later life due to his memories of the conflict, probably with what we know today as Post Traumatic Stress.

    The age of the those who fought in the Tan War is mental, the majority of them were in their 20s and early 30s but yet they decided the course of a nation against the biggest empire in the world.


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    #76
    munsterlegend
    Registered Users Posts: 6,163 ✭✭✭munsterlegend


    Michael Collins is hard to overlook. Everything you would want in a leader..bravery ,courage humble and pragmatic. He led us to full freedom against all odds and not some diluted home rule version.


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    #77
    Stonedpilot
    Registered Users Posts: 1,253 ✭✭✭Stonedpilot


    Che Guevara


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    #78
    Junkyard Tom
    Registered Users Posts: 10,117 ✭✭✭✭Junkyard Tom


    Catherine Leyden TV3's 'Odlums Woman'.

    am_bread_3player_1_45892_preview.jpg


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    #79
    maryishere
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,549 ✭✭✭maryishere


    FTA69 wrote: »
    During the Kilmichael ambush he stood in the middle of the road and fired the first shots at point blank range toward a convoy of heavily armed soldiers.

    He actually lay on the road in a British army uniform, as dusk fell, in order to slow down / stop the first lorry: his comrades then ambushed the 2 lorries. No prisoners were taken and the bodies were mutilated with axes.
    Not surprising Barry suffered a mental breakdown in later life, given his actions.
    Some innocent protestants were killed by the IRA in west Cork too. I suppose as far as IRA men went, Tom Barry was great.

    Less controversal to choose someone from the world of science, business, the arts, music, sport etc of which we have many.


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    #80
    steddyeddy
    Registered Users Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭steddyeddy


    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Why not?

    He was the founder of a terrorist group. That's why.


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    #81
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,078 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    Chris de Burg.
    http://www.mtv.com/shared/media/images/amg_artist_portraits/standard/drp100/p118/p11887e13y2.jpg


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    #82
    steddyeddy
    Registered Users Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭steddyeddy


    A recent one for me is Nobel laureate William C. Campbell. His work on parasites have resulted in drugs which have saved the sight of millions.


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    #83
    A Little Pony
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,875 ✭✭✭A Little Pony


    steddyeddy wrote: »
    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Why not?

    He was The founder of a terrorist group. That's why.
    Wasn't Michael Collins?


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    #84
    steddyeddy
    Registered Users Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭steddyeddy


    A Little Pony wrote: »
    Wasn't Michael Collins?

    Yes he was, but you said you don't support terrorists. That's what surprised me.


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    #85
    iDave
    Registered Users Posts: 3,750 ✭✭✭iDave


    Michael Cusack


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    #86
    wellmade2040
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43 ✭wellmade2040


    It's a toss up , Conor McGregor or gerry Adams


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    #87
    XsApollo
    Registered Users Posts: 2,416 ✭✭✭XsApollo


    Georgie Burgess.

    A1 Sharon.


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    #88
    FrKurtFahrt
    Registered Users Posts: 899 ✭✭✭FrKurtFahrt


    Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »
    James Joyce, the most important writer of his century, and every single word of it was set in Dublin, making it one of the world's most important literary cities (he didn't do this alone).

    Its hard to disagree, although I'd think Samuel Beckett also deserves a nomination.


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    #89
    pauliebdub
    Registered Users Posts: 1,061 ✭✭✭pauliebdub


    Patrick o 'Connell

    To fans of Seville's second team Real Betis he guided them to their only la Liga title. Went on to manage Barcelona. They've won SFA since.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_O%27Connell_(Irish_footballer)


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    #90
    farmerwifelet
    Registered Users Posts: 299 ✭✭farmerwifelet


    Francis & Hanna Sheehy Skeffington. Francis in particular was an amazing individual. He was so far ahead of his time. He was a suffragette, a vegetarian and a pacifist. He took his wife's name when they married. He was friends with the leaders of 1916 and when they were writing the proclamation he said they should include Irishwomen. He tried to set up a civil police to stop looting during the rising. The British captured him and held him prisoner - he was used as a human shield and after objecting to the murder of a teen boy he was later executed by the british. When James Connolly was told he was being executed he asked his daughter to get "Skeffy" to write his biography. He cried when she told him they killed Skeffy. TG4 did a great documentary on him.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Sheehy-Skeffington


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    #91
    TheRiverman
    Registered Users Posts: 6,101 ✭✭✭TheRiverman


    Mr. FoggPatches wrote: »
    Barracks o'bama. 3 u-21 medals for laois, handy at handball, built an eaterie and became president of the ufc or something. Who else can say that?

    You mean Offaly?:D


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