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A world without Ireland

2

Comments

  • #32
    FloatingVoter
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,133 ✭✭✭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.


  • #33
    Cabaal
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 28,726 Mod ✭✭✭✭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,


  • #34
    starlit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,349 ✭✭✭✭starlit


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


  • #35
    wonton
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,214 ✭✭✭wonton


    There would be almost certainly no twilight.





    cheers for that bram.


  • #36
    Dicky Pride
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,322 ✭✭✭Dicky Pride


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


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  • #37
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 1,766 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    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.


  • #38
    LincolnsBeard
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 218 ✭✭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.


  • #39
    MaxSteele
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,109 ✭✭✭MaxSteele


    No bleerin fordineers takin oirish jobs eedaar


  • #40
    Davidius
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,893 ✭✭✭Davidius


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


  • #41
    Ghost Buster
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,172 ✭✭✭Ghost Buster


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


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  • #42
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 511 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    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!


  • #43
    starlit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,349 ✭✭✭✭starlit


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


  • #44
    Ghost Buster
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,172 ✭✭✭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


  • #45
    SEPT 23 1989
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 43,038 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    Wales would be washed away


  • #46
    Where To
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭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.


  • #47
    GUIGuy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 246 ✭✭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.


  • #48
    3ndahalfof6
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,184 ✭✭✭3ndahalfof6


    Your lapin mad.


  • #49
    Skid
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,872 ✭✭✭Skid


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


  • #50
    flutterflye
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,538 ✭✭✭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?


  • #51
    dollypet
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 74 ✭✭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:


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  • #52
    Fratton Fred
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,566 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    FloatingVoter wrote: »
    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.

    No he didn't, that's a myth.

    Five of the "Founding Fathers" of the US were Irish born.

    Then there's John Barry, father of the US navy and don't forget the O'Higgins family


  • #53
    smallerthanyou
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,025 ✭✭✭smallerthanyou


    Many construction projects in England in the nineties such as the rebuilding of Manchester cathedral wouldn't have been needed.... We're not a bad lot but not all our influences were positive.


  • #54
    c_man
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,436 ✭✭✭c_man


    England would get more rain.

    See, they need us badly.


  • #55
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,387 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    doovdela wrote: »
    What about the greats from 1800's-1920's? Other than St patrick himself...even if he were welsh!
    You surely mean from the "dark ages" and early medieval? A bit further back like. Plus Paddy was more likely northern English, a Romanised Britain.
    Ghost Buster wrote: »
    Christianity may not have survived in Europe. So its not all good.;)
    True, but without Christianity Islam might well have taken over and extended the caliphate, a new European empire in the vacuum of Rome. With a further intellectual loss too. Without the countless Irish missionaries and missions, there would have been little enough resistance to a new faith. Not so great on a few levels. Not restricted to religion either. Empires stagnate after initial brilliance. The Islamic empire was initially a real bright spot for humanity, but then degraded into "meh" for a thousand years. They missed printing, the renaissance the enlightenment etc.
    c_man wrote: »
    England would get more rain.

    See, they need us badly.
    Jeez they get enough. Without us in the way they'd have evolved gills.

    Many worry about Artificial Intelligence. I worry far more about Organic Idiocy.



  • #56
    starlit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,349 ✭✭✭✭starlit


    No I am talking about Wolftone, Daniel O Connell, Pearse, Michael Collins and JB Yates, Joyce and so on. Sir Realigh be the only really one to think of further back than that. Bram stroker!? Many other famous Irish people in history, the girl that started off the suffragette movement!?


  • #57
    nicki116
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭nicki116


    GUIGuy wrote: »
    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.

    Guess we were important then, just wanted to add that it was the Brits idea to send Irish prisoners to Australia, regardless of what happened next we were the original settlers so Australia would likely be very different today.


  • #58
    gobnaitolunacy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,073 ✭✭✭gobnaitolunacy


    doovdela wrote: »
    No I am talking about Wolftone, Daniel O Connell, Pearse, Michael Collins and JB Yates, Joyce and so on. Sir Realigh be the only really one to think of further back than that. Bram stroker!? Many other famous Irish people in history, the girl that started off the suffragette movement!?

    Sir Walter Raleigh was English and no, he didn't invent the bicycle.


  • #59
    faceman
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 16,691 CMod ✭✭✭✭faceman


    Yeah but other than that, what have the Romans Irish ever done for us?


  • #60
    Pj!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,783 ✭✭✭Pj!


    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 forgot Brendan Kilkenny


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  • #61
    NegativeCreep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,351 ✭✭✭NegativeCreep


    There'd ne no Jeff Buckley. Just throwing that out there.


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