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Greatest Irish Person

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    #92
    dr gonzo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,676 ✭✭✭dr gonzo


    tl:dr. Dunno if its been mentioned already but since theres discussion about Artie Wellesley i thought i might throw this one out.

    What about Shackleton?


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    #93
    CDfm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    dr gonzo wrote: »
    What about Shackleton?

    An Irish guy who was always on hand to rescue English polar explorers who got in to bother. Is that the shackleton you mean ;)


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    #94
    CDfm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    Fratton Fred wrote: »


    Rum, Sodomy and the spud :confused::D

    I wasnt going to mention sodomy but they did invent the boarding school :p


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    #95
    getz
    Registered Users Posts: 5,255 ✭✭✭getz


    how about the rev patrick bronte ? or even my irish grandad


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    #96
    CDfm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    getz wrote: »
    how about the rev patrick bronte ?

    his real name was Prunty and he changed his name to Bronte probably as it soulded more exotic and Lord Nelson was Earl of Bronte.

    or even my irish grandad

    I d vote for him provided none of his daughters wrote crap books that were inflicted on others for the leaving cert.

    Bah -victorian chick lit.


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    #97
    Fratton Fred
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    CDfm wrote: »
    An Irish guy who was always on hand to rescue English polar explorers who got in to bother. Is that the shackleton you mean ;)

    Aah, now I understand how the Anglo-Irish thing works.

    Rescue people - Irish
    Kill people - English :-))

    Admiral Cunningham was born in Rathmines I believe, he was a great Admiral and very heavily decorated by not only the UK, but also France, Belgium, China and the US.

    Probably not the greatest Irishman, but worthy of a mention I believe.


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    #98
    getz
    Registered Users Posts: 5,255 ✭✭✭getz


    CDfm wrote: »
    his real name was Prunty and he changed his name to Bronte probably as it soulded more exotic and Lord Nelson was Earl of Bronte.




    I d vote for him provided none of his daughters wrote crap books that were inflicted on others for the leaving cert.

    Bah -victorian chick lit.
    i was in haworth on sunday,and i went into the parsonage museum,i would recommend it to anyone,in one of charlottes letters she says that her granfather was hugh brunty from drumballyrony,and her dad patrick took the name bronte from his hero nelson,i am not to keen on the sisters books myself,but i just love their poems,he educated his children himself,he changed the child working hrs law in britain,to limit 9 year olds to working only a 10hr day.before that they would be chained to the looms for 12hrs at a time so they woudent walk away


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    #99
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    getz wrote: »
    how about the rev patrick bronte ? or even my irish grandad

    Patrick Bronte cared not a spit about Ireland or the Irish - attempts to link him in notwithstanding. The primary source for this is Elizabeth Gaskell - he asked her to write the life of Charlotte after the latter's death and supplied her with background information.

    Although he was born in Co Down Gaskell states [with his blessing] that in Yorkshire "He was far removed from his birthplace and all his Irish connections; with whom indeed he cared little to keep up any intercourse and whom he never revisited after he became a student at Cambridge".


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    #100
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    getz wrote: »
    i was in haworth on sunday,and i went into the parsonage museum,i would recommend it to anyone,in one of charlottes letters she says that her granfather was hugh brunty from drumballyrony,and her dad patrick took the name bronte from his hero nelson,i am not to keen on the sisters books myself,but i just love their poems,he educated his children himself,he changed the child working hrs law in britain,to limit 9 year olds to working only a 10hr day.before that they would be chained to the looms for 12hrs at a time so they woudent walk away

    I agree the museum in Haworth is worth a visit - I've been there a number of times. I was first there years ago and again last year. It has improved greatly with much primary material. The small writings of the Bronte children on little note paper were fascinating.

    I love all the Bronte novels.


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    #101
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    CDfm wrote: »
    I d vote for him provided none of his daughters wrote crap books that were inflicted on others for the leaving cert.

    Bah -victorian chick lit.

    We're getting off topic - but I wanted to answer this. The Brontes were an amazing break from the usual Victorian novel in that their work displays human cruelty, passion and especially violence in a way that other Nineteenth century writers did not. Some critics at the time were appalled but their work stands alone - and without the honeyed sentiment that Dickens, for example, so loved.


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    #102
    CDfm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    Fratton Fred wrote: »
    Aah, now I understand how the Anglo-Irish thing works.

    Rescue people - Irish
    Kill people - English :-))

    I havent looked at it that way, but I am sure there is plenty of historical evidence to back this up , I will try to keep an open mind. :D
    Probably not the greatest Irishman, but worthy of a mention I believe.

    He is.
    MarchDub wrote: »
    We're getting off topic - but I wanted to answer this. The Brontes were an amazing break from the usual Victorian novel in that their work displays human cruelty, passion and especially violence in a way that other Nineteenth century writers did not. Some critics at the time were appalled but their work stands alone - and without the honeyed sentiment that Dickens, for example, so loved.

    I am not a fan or a fan of Dickens or Peig Sayers or James Joyce.

    I have always found their works mellodrama and particularily disliked the narrative style of Wuthering Heights and I have never been desperate enough to pick up a book by the Brontes or Dickens again after a dabble. They really are not to my taste and thats not a criticism of them. Now Andy McNab.

    The one thing that did always intrigue me was that the surviving sister married her fathers curate. He inherited everything and whatever happened to him. He appears to have disappeared.


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    #103
    celticbhoy1888
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11 ✭celticbhoy1888


    bobby sands!


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    #104
    dr gonzo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,676 ✭✭✭dr gonzo


    Fratton Fred wrote: »
    Admiral Cunningham was born in Rathmines I believe, he was a great Admiral and very heavily decorated by not only the UK, but also France, Belgium, China and the US.

    Speaking of navies what about Admiral William Brown or Commodore John Barry. Fathers of the Argentine and United States navies respectively.


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    #105
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    CDfm wrote: »

    I am not a fan or a fan of Dickens or Peig Sayers or James Joyce.

    I have always found their works mellodrama and particularily disliked the narrative style of Wuthering Heights and I have never been desperate enough to pick up a book by the Brontes or Dickens again after a dabble. They really are not to my taste and thats not a criticism of them. Now Andy McNab.

    I have no problem with your preferences at all - just that I wanted to answer to the "chick lit" charge for the Brontes. They were a lot more than that.
    CDfm wrote: »
    The one thing that did always intrigue me was that the surviving sister married her fathers curate. He inherited everything and whatever happened to him. He appears to have disappeared.

    His name was Arthur Bell Nicholls and he stayed on after Charlotte's death and saw Patrick Bronte through his last illness in the early 1860s. Then Nicholls returned to Ireland [he was native Irish] and died here around 1906 when he was in his 80s.


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    #106
    CDfm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    MarchDub wrote: »
    I have no problem with your preferences at all - just that I wanted to answer to the "chick lit" charge for the Brontes. They were a lot more than that.

    I appreciate that - but I have never been a fan.


    His name was Arthur Bell Nicholls and he stayed on after Charlotte's death and saw Patrick Bronte through his last illness in the early 1860s. Then Nicholls returned to Ireland [he was native Irish] and died here around 1906 when he was in his 80s.

    the books made money i presume any info on who inherited them.


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    #107
    MarchDub
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,731 ✭✭✭MarchDub


    CDfm wrote: »
    I appreciate that - but I have never been a fan.





    the books made money i presume any info on who inherited them.

    Charlotte left a will leaving everything to her husband. I don't think the books made a great deal at the time. Her estate was originally estimated to be around £2000 at her death but was then changed within a week of her death to £20. Speculation is that her publishers owned some of the estate - not sure why this would be. Her husband brought back to Ireland some of her furniture and personal belongings and some of that was on auction within the past 10 years or so. There's a painting in the Haworth museum of the three sisters that he apparently had in Ireland and is now returned to Haworth.


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    #108
    CDfm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    Thanks Marchdub & I wonder who inherited from him - tabloid version -it would be ironic if the Bronte legacy had been owned by a hairy arsed farmer from Kerry.

    Anyway , Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty , who rescued 4,000 allies and jews in Rome during WWII , is a Righteous among the gentiles up their with Oskar Schindler and was dubbed the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican( a Corkman), deserves a mention.
    theguardian wrote:
    In 1948 the former SS Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler was sentenced to life for his crimes against humanity. Only one man ever came to visit him in prison: Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, the "Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican", who had saved thousands of Jews and Gentiles from Kappler and his cohorts.
    In the second world war, Kappler and O'Flaherty had played a cat-and-mouse game in Rome, with O'Flaherty always managing to stay one leap ahead. Kappler had become so furious that he even tried to have O'Flaherty removed from the neutral territory of the Vatican and assassinated. And yet, every month for 10 years, the priest travelled to see the Nazi in his cell. This was a different kind of rescue mission - reaching out to a "soul in need".
    And that's the story behind Robin Glendinning's play The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican (2.15pm, R4), starring John Lynch and Wolf Kahler.
    source


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    #109
    mkeano
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17 ✭mkeano


    Voting is now closed on the poll, as they are commissioning documentaries on the winners they'll probably wait until the documentaries are finished before announcing the winners. I'm hoping to see a documenatary on Wolfe Tone to be honest but I don't think he was the greatest irish man...i'd say O'Connell, Parnell, Collins and DeValera have had the biggest impact in Irish history.

    Collins for me wins out..not because he was a demi god as was suggested in a previous thread, but because he operated as a politician and rebel. He signed the treaty and paved the way for independence. Dev done great in ww2 keeping us neutral but if it was left to him and the treaty was rejected, we'd still be under British rule


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    #110
    PeterIanStaker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,072 ✭✭✭PeterIanStaker


    T.K. Whitaker.


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    #111
    Zampano
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9 ✭Zampano


    TK Whitaker is still alive and well. He recently celebrated his 94th birthday and there's no sign of him slowing down. TG4 will screen a documentary with the great man reflecting on his life. It airs on the 27th December at 8.15pm. Below is the blurb that TG4 released.

    TG4
    Declared the Greatest Living Irish Person by the 2002 ESB/Rehab People of the Year Awards, TK Whitaker is one of the giants of 20th Century Ireland. His appointment as Secretary of the Department of Finance in 1956 led to a new era of optimism and prosperity. His influence also shaped government policy on Northern Ireland where he steered Jack Lynch away from military intervention and later formulated the Principle of Consent as espoused by the Taoiseach in his Tralee Speech. And in Europe he was a key player in promoting and securing E.E.C. membership. Now in his tenth decade he reflects on a remarkable life dedicated to public service.


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    #112
    CDfm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    TK Whitaker you say, Lemass's understudy and largely the architect of the Irish Corporate State then and who brought in the theories from Scandinavia on which our public service and the unelected social partnership is based.

    Parnell & O'Connell are streets ahead.


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    #113
    dave2pvd
    Registered Users Posts: 1,511 ✭✭✭dave2pvd


    dr gonzo wrote: »
    Speaking of navies what about Admiral William Brown or Commodore John Barry. Fathers of the Argentine and United States navies respectively.

    I'll match your John Barry and raise you a Thomas Francis Meagher.

    What about Aoife MacMurrough? She was quite the ancestor. Her legacy to the world? Starts with a Roman King (Richard). Shortly thereafter, Robert the Bruce. Over the next few hundred years her lineage included most of the English Kings (1442 onwards). The list is long, and still shaping the world today. I believe her latest contributions were the 41st and 43rd US presidents. I suppose some might argue that all she did was have a couple of kids. However, has any other Irish person left such an indelible mark on the world in the last 800 years?

    A parting thought: it would have been amusing to see Ian Paisley on the list ;)


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