The greatest Irish person...

Dirty Dingus McGee

maryishere wrote: »

He did not lie in order to keep himself alive : those who spent a short time in Wales were not shot. He lied so he could get out of internment asap to start murdering again. He did not show the same mercy the British had shown him.

How dare a man lie in order to get out of prison.Tut,Tut,Tut.

It's not cricket old chap I tell you.

He was a very naughty boy wasn't he?

Patser

A Little Pony wrote: »

If Michael Collins is better than Stonewall Jackson or Genghis Kahn then I am am Santa Claus.

The poll was for Generals that fought against Britain, do unless Genghis Khan somehow made it to Carlisle, or the Stonewall that Jackson was named after was in Somerset then yes, yes you are Santa Claus.

feargale

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Woah woah, hold on there. As the person who started the thread, I purposely choose not to define it.

No problem with that. That's your call,

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Some might suggest you have just eliminated the soldiers, the Tom Barrys and Michael Collins, unless you think a talent for killing or taking us from peace to Civil War (albeit with a different political destiny) left the place much much better.

You have me confused. I said nothing good or bad about soldiers.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

You don't think ability to create high art like Yeats, or simply to endure and survive like Crean are great? By your logic, we'll just have to wrap this up, measure which scientist's work saved the most lives (presumably Robert Boyle, the man who devised chemistry and who isn't listed) and end the poll.

I think those abilities are good. Great? Maybe. The greatest thing that happened to this corner of humanity, meriting the title "greatest Irish person"? No, definitely not. I've already given my tuppence worth on the greatest, i.e. Daniel O'Connell.

whoopsadoodles

Barbie! wrote: »

I will be resetting the poll in a few days once we've settled on 25 people.

Did you reset the poll?

You know resetting the poll just zeros it, it doesn't let people who had already voted, vote again?....unless they've changed it very recently.....

J Mysterio

Noveight wrote: »

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.

I was also going to mention this hero.

Ken.

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

Did you reset the poll?

You know resetting the poll just zeros it, it doesn't let people who had already voted, vote again?....unless they've changed it very recently.....

Nope not yet. I create a new thread with a new poll, then merge and keep the new poll and everyone can vote again.

Realistically I'm not going to get to it till tomorrow. So if there are any more names to be added or taken away get them in quick cause I'm only doing one more reset.

Just came across the career of an Irish journalist named Joe MacAnthony while googling about the extraordinarily corrupt Joe McGrath (whose chief private house and estate was Cabinteely House and grounds) and the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes.

The Sweeps (the Lotto before the National Lottery) were held in huge regard in Irish society with the money supposedly going to fund Irish hospitals.

Then, in the 1970s, Joe MacAnthony decided to investigate it and the seeming coincidence that the McGrath family were now obscenely wealthy.... Long before this state established commissions to investigate corrupt politicians MacAnthony was investigating the "planning consultancy service" of a certain Raphael Burke of FF and loads of other political corruption. His employer in Independent Newspapers came under pressure to remove him... within two years he left Ireland for an investigative journalism job in Canada's CBC and never returned.

Great article by Bock the Robber: Joe McGrath & the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes

Joe MacAnthony: then and now

Vincent Browne interview with Joe MacAnthony in 2006:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9nR3FyxabA

BalcombeSt4

Bob Geldof???

This complete & utter ****ing tosser?

Brendan "Darkie" Hughes & Seamus Costello are my favorite Irish fellas, loved their dedication in trying to make Ireland work for the working class. I like Bernie Devlin to.

maryishere

BalcombeSt4 wrote: »

Brendan "Darkie" Hughes if my favorite Irish fella.

No surprise there, seeing as you condoned the murder and maiming of innocent people in London. Innocents murdered by the IRA in London in a restaurant a generation ago were similar in many ways to innocents killed in the Westminster bridge attack a few weeks ago.

Anyway to get back to "ex-senior commander of the IRA" Hughes, did you know that:
"Hughes claims that in 1972 Adams ordered the killing and burial of Jean McConville, a mother of 10 shot dead by the IRA. He has also suggested that Adams gave the order for the IRA to hang one of its own members in Long Kesh because the 22-year-old cracked under police questioning.

Finally Hughes boasts that he personally ran a fraudulent campaign for Adams's election as an MP, stealing thousands of votes from dead people in the process.

"I never carried out a major (IRA) operation without the okay or the order from Gerry," he is quoted as saying. "
http://www.herald.ie/opinion/andrew-lynch-darkie-hughes-has-shown-us-the-blood-on-adamss-hands-he-must-go-as-sf-leader-now-27946779.html

LordSutch

Arthur Guinness
John Hume

LordSutch

Arthur Guinness.
Jonathan Swift.
W.B.Yeates.
John Hume.
Mary Robinson.

Phone will not allow me to add names/edit the last post :-(

FrancieBrady

I think, given the impact he made on the this country and achieving equality and parity of esteem for a large section of fellow Irish men, women and children, that Martin McGuinness should be on that list.
Practically, he did (not just talked about it) by deed and action much more to progress the country than many on that list.
E.G; if we just wanted to talk or review the negative aspects of a contribution, Arthur Guinness would be hung at dawn.
If you didn't like Arthur one could present this forum with Wikipedia lists of road deaths, marriage breakdown, suicides and lethal porter farts caused by the black stuff he invented.

artemis268

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I think, given the impact he made on the this country and achieving equality and parity of esteem for a large section of fellow Irish men, women and children, that Martin McGuinness should be on that list.
Practically, he did (not just talked about it) by deed and action much more to progress the country than many on that list.
E.G; if we just wanted to talk or review the negative aspects of a contribution, Arthur Guinness would be hung at dawn.
If you didn't like Arthur one could present this forum with Wikipedia lists of road deaths, marriage breakdown, suicides and lethal porter farts caused by the black stuff he invented.

Martin Mcguiness was a unremorseful terrorist who bombed civilians and should not be held in such high esteem.

FrancieBrady

artemis268 wrote: »

Martin Mcguiness was a unremorseful terrorist who bombed civilians and should not be held in such high esteem.

Churchill, Obama, Blair etc (an endless list of revered figures) all bombed civilians in pursuit of their goals (it's up to you to appraise those goals) and would be seen as terrorists by those they bombed.
'Terrorism' is a useless word. It's a handy disparaging label for those whose ideals you disagree with.

McGuinness, like those named above has to have his whole life path taken into account and he left his community better off (as evidenced by the numbers who turned out for his funeral) and his country a better place.

murpho999

artemis268 wrote: »

Martin Mcguiness was a unremorseful terrorist who bombed civilians and should not be held in such high esteem.

Same thing could be said about Michael Collins.

A Little Pony

Imagine comparing the great Winston Churchill to Martin Mcguinness. One who helped in the Allied effort to stop Nazi Germany and inspired his people to resist Nazi invasion and the other a terrorist murdering dirtbag.

The_Kew_Tour

A Little Pony wrote: »

Imagine comparing the great Winston Churchill to Martin Mcguinness. One who helped in the Allied effort to stop Nazi Germany and inspired his people to resist Nazi invasion and the other a terrorist murdering dirtbag.

Why not.?

Churchill not only bombed Dresden but for desert the following morning decided to kill innocent civilians with more air bombs killing innocent Familes trying to flee the city.

Ken.

Mod-Lads and ladies. This has been a fun thread but it's getting to a point where it has run it's course. Please stop knocking other peoples choices just cause you don't agree. Offer up a person of your own and say why.

Widdershins

I voted Collins. Thought about Crean. Don't like Shackleton because of what he did to the ship's cat and the crew's dogs.

PMBC

A Little Pony wrote: »

Imagine comparing the great Winston Churchill to Martin Mcguinness. One who helped in the Allied effort to stop Nazi Germany and inspired his people to resist Nazi invasion and the other a terrorist murdering dirtbag.

Yes Churchill did great work in WW2 but was a disaster in WW1. Pi***d off the Turks by cancelling their ships order and then sent thousands to their death in the Balkans fiasco. He certainly was an opportunist in his early career, organizing police raids and then being photographed for self publicity. However, he did like 'the Irish'!

PMBC

William Rowan Hamilton, Edmund Burke, Jocelyn Bell, Swift. Big time Paul McGrath in my book.

Poor Uncle Tom

A Little Pony wrote: »

.....the other a terrorist murdering dirtbag.

jeeeze... Churchill wasn't that bad!

Barbie! wrote: »

Mod-Lads and ladies. Offer up a person of your own and say why.

Very odd choice of verbage...

When is the list being updated to include the real heros not just the wannabes listed?

Ken.

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

jeeeze... Churchill wasn't that bad!



Very odd choice of verbage...

When is the list being updated to include the real heros not just the wannabes listed?

I'm not changing the poll. I changed it 3 times and people complained every time so it's not worth the hassle.

snowflaker

Dana

Poor Uncle Tom

Barbie! wrote: »

I'm not changing the poll. I changed it 3 times and people complained every time so it's not worth the hassle.

All-rightie-then you should change the title to something like "who is the greatest of these 22 people, mostly Irish and includes the barman"
just sayin' loike...

Ken.

Ok then. I'll change it one more time. I'll read through the last few pages and get a list of names.

Poor Uncle Tom

Naw, it's not worth going to that trouble, I'm only pulling your chain....

LordSutch

Not sure I would have included Countess Markievicz in the poll. One thing I learnt during all the 1916 stuff last year was that she murdered a police constable in St Stephen's Green!
Apparently he asked her & her comrades to move along, so she promptly pulled out a gun & shot him dead. There have been other accusations about her too involving her & her gun, so I wouldn't hold her up as one of Ireland's greatest people.

feargale

LordSutch wrote: »

Arthur Guinness.

Jaypers, Sutch. I think you have a deathwish for this nation! What were you on when you voted for Arthur?

LordSutch wrote: »

Jonathan Swift.
W.B.Yeates.

Good, yes, but greatest Irish person? I'm thinking of writing a few ditties myself to get on the list.

LordSutch wrote: »

John Hume.

Now you're talking. He devoted his life to achieving human rights by constitutional means, and committed political suicide to bring peace to Northern Ireland.


Mary Robinson[/quote]

Hmmm.

Laois_Man

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?

I had a thing going with his mother about 40 weeks before he was born and he still never invited me over to his new house when he went off to merica looking for the work. Philadelphia Avenue sounded like a right hole though!