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Greatest Irish Person

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,421 ✭✭✭major bill


    what a joke that gately got number 5 no disrespect to the man or anything.

    Bono???? fairplay to him he put ireland on the map a bit with his music but com'on seriously.


    hope collins or connolly wins it, only logical candidates there.


  • Registered Users Posts: 159 ✭✭McCruiskeen


    Let's just hope Bono doesn't finish as "number 2"



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,421 ✭✭✭major bill


    Let's just hope Bono doesn't finish as "number 2"

    1109_bono_enter.jpg


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,609 ✭✭✭Flamed Diving


    Gately will prob win it. Seriously.

    Good money is still on my man.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,362 ✭✭✭K4t


    Michael Davitt is incredibly under-appreciated in Irish history. Not many people, nevermind an Irish man, can hold the title of influencing Gandhi. "Mahatma Gandhi attributed the origin of his own mass movement of peaceful resistance in India to Davitt and the Land League." wiki

    It really is a joke of a list. Most likely surveyed on O'Connell street.:rolleyes:


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  • Registered Users Posts: 709 ✭✭✭Exile 1798


    It’s not just some of the names of the list that are absurd, but the whole concept of their being a "greatest Irish person ever."

    It's complete folly to even think like this.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    Is it Liam Neeson or Michael Collins thats on the list because in the Michael Collins movie wasnt Alan Rickman cast as Dev and isnt he normally cast as the baddie

    Die-Hard-Alan-Rickman_l.jpg

    oops wrong movie :cool:


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,477 ✭✭✭grenache


    CDfm wrote: »
    Is it Liam Neeson or Michael Collins thats on the list because in the Michael Collins movie wasnt Alan Rickman cast as Dev and isnt he normally cast as the baddie
    Rickman was cast perfectly for that role then ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,885 ✭✭✭PomBear


    James Connolly, for me by a country mile


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,273 ✭✭✭Morlar


    Exile 1798 wrote: »
    It’s not just some of the names of the list that are absurd, but the whole concept of their being a "greatest Irish person ever."

    It's complete folly to even think like this.

    I don't think it's an absurd notion, in fact highlighting these figures has the potential to be educational to a lot of people. So the idea behind having the list I don't see as flawed it's just that it's an internet poll & so was manipulated by gay advocacy groups to include stephen gately on there as if for a nanosecond his achievements ranked up there along with giants like Michael Collins and Wolfe Tone etc.

    If the list was moderated to take this into effect it could be a worthwhile exercise if it encourages people to think about our countries history rather than recently dead, gay boyband singers.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 709 ✭✭✭Exile 1798


    Morlar wrote: »
    I don't think it's an absurd notion, in fact highlighting these figures has the potential to be educational to a lot of people. So the idea behind having the list I don't see as flawed it's just that it's an internet poll & so was manipulated by gay advocacy groups to include stephen gately on there as if for a nanosecond his achievements ranked up there along with giants like Michael Collins and Wolfe Tone etc.

    If the list was moderated to take this into effect it could be a worthwhile exercise if it encourages people to think about our countries history rather than recently dead, gay boyband singers.

    I think it is absurd.

    If the question was who was the most influential political leader, most important literary figure, most significant artist then that might lead to an interesting and educational discussion.

    But "greatest Irish person ever?" Is as silly a question as "what's the greatest song ever"?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,650 ✭✭✭sensibleken


    seconding Aodh Mór ó' neill, or Gránuaile

    personally i think its a pathetic list. with the exception of o connell and tone every figure is from the 20th century. another example of the myopic view of our history that a great deal of the population have.

    personally id rather have bosco win than most of the people on that list (louise walsh?)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 358 ✭✭Hugo Drax


    Gately will prob win it. Seriously.

    Lord Kitchener.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23 WhoDat


    I voted for Oscar Wilde on the original list. Just such an incrediably brilliant writer. I'm very disappointed that no writers made it to the short list. We come from a country that is admired globally for the wealth of excellent writers we have produced, and yet we don't seem to have any respect for them.

    Of what's left, James Connolly should win. He's an icon of Irish history, even more so than Pearse or Collins, in my opinion.

    If Gately or Bono win, it will be truly embarrassing. Let's be honest, if Gately wins it'll just be because he's dead. What has he done for Ireland? Nothing. All he did was spend some time in a ****ty boyband who, funnily enough, were an embarrassment to this country, and then died. No disrespect to the guy or anything, but the only reason he's on the list is because he died recently. If he is voted the greatest Irishman of all-time, I will die inside. It would be like a slap in the face to people like Connolly, Pearse, Collins, Wilde, Yeats, etc., who actually did great things for Ireland.

    Bono, on the otherhand, is a tax-dodging, egotistical twat. If I never saw or heard from him again, it'd be too soon.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,062 ✭✭✭walrusgumble


    K4t wrote: »
    Michael Davitt is incredibly under-appreciated in Irish history. Not many people, nevermind an Irish man, can hold the title of influencing Gandhi. "Mahatma Gandhi attributed the origin of his own mass movement of peaceful resistance in India to Davitt and the Land League." wiki

    It really is a joke of a list. Most likely surveyed on O'Connell street.:rolleyes:

    at least davit would be a candidate that all poltical parties and groups could agree on


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,062 ✭✭✭walrusgumble


    CDfm wrote: »
    Is it Liam Neeson or Michael Collins thats on the list because in the Michael Collins movie wasnt Alan Rickman cast as Dev and isnt he normally cast as the baddie

    Die-Hard-Alan-Rickman_l.jpg

    oops wrong movie :cool:

    dev and countess markveich (sp) outide Dáil Éireann 1926. "if I can sign it, so can you"


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,062 ✭✭✭walrusgumble


    people in my opinion worth considering, in no particular order, people who did something worthy enough that put ireland on the map (for good reasons)

    Daniel O'Connell
    Dr Paddy Hillery
    Sean Leamass
    Michael Davitt
    James Connolly
    Fr McVeary (The Homeless Campaigner)
    Dev
    Michael Collins
    Mary Robbinson
    James Joyce
    Lady Gregory
    Countess Markveic (sp)
    Rory Gallagher (the musician)
    Phil Lynott (there before bloody U2)
    Maureen O'Hara (well gotta get the ladies in, and she is a good one)
    John Hume
    Sean O'Casey
    John Count McCormack
    Paul McGrath (Without wishing to sound profane but using the word, but The MAN is a pure, bone fide legend)
    CS Parnell


    Bono is annoying, but sure look, some of our best people like George Bernard Shaw, Joyce, Beckett and many others fecked out of this country to make themselves. I would like to consider Dr Noel Browne but he allienated himself and others (jumping to various parties, stamping his foot like a child when he did not get his way, he should have stuck in their on fought on - he had good and honest intentions though)

    Are we blind but how come there are not so many women in contention?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 766 ✭✭✭Norwayviking


    Rebelheart wrote: »
    Well, that is probably perfectly true if you are a scientist who has given enormous advantages to the world. No problems there.

    However, if your "greatness" is based upon defending the very state which is occupying your home country, as was the case with Arthur Wesley, that is an entirely different matter, in my view. Would Vidkun Quisling, for instance, be considered a "great" Norwegian, considering he was clearly 'someone significant and of substance'?

    NO!!!!!!!


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,900 ✭✭✭InTheTrees


    Roger Casement.

    (the diaries were forged!)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    InTheTrees wrote: »
    Roger Casement.

    (the diaries were forged!)

    i read an article by one of his northern relatives and they were dead embarressed by him and it wasnt his homosexuality :pac:


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  • Registered Users Posts: 7,450 ✭✭✭Blisterman


    Did they ever release the 5 winners?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    dev and countess markveich (sp) outide Dáil Éireann 1926. "if I can sign it, so can you"

    rofl :D
    Blisterman wrote: »
    Did they ever release the 5 winners?

    It always amazes me that you had women like Kate Tyrell and that are always overlooked in these things.

    In Maritime circles Kate Tyrell was also the first ship owner to fly the irish ensign/flag on her vessel in Liverpool I believe and the first female ship owner on the Llyods list. She used to specialise in tramp shipping and munitions which sail boats were better for handling apparently.She would probably have thought -the vote -thats for wimps.

    I was reminded of it on a Newstalk Programme recently.

    The tyrells had a boatyard in arklow and buil and designed Gypsy Moth III and Asguard II


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,239 ✭✭✭Jimbob1977


    Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer, would be a worthy winner. He was undoubtedly a very courageous and selfless man. The only drawback was that he served in the Royal Navy on British expeditions. That fact might not "sit well" with some Irish people.

    The Duke of Wellington hated the fact that he was born in Ireland - 'being born in a barn does not make someone a horse'.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    Jimbob1977 wrote: »
    The Duke of Wellington hated the fact that he was born in Ireland - 'being born in a barn does not make someone a horse'.

    Maybe there should be a sticky "Common misconceptions and Myths in Irish History"

    This could be number one, followed by the Drogheda star and crescent myth!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    Jimbob1977 wrote: »
    Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer, would be a worthy winner. He was undoubtedly a very courageous and selfless man. The only drawback was that he served in the Royal Navy on British expeditions. That fact might not "sit well" with some Irish people.

    good choice
    The Duke of Wellington hated the fact that he was born in Ireland - 'being born in a barn does not make someone a horse'.

    I think that is wrongly attributed to Wellington when it is attributed to be said of him by Daniel O'Connell.
    The poor old Duke! what shall I say of him? To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.
    Daniel O'Connell, in a speech (16 October 1843), as quoted in Shaw's Authenticated Report of the Irish State Trials (1844), p. 93

    I never know what to make of Wellington ,but in this context, as he had been Prime Minister at the time of Catholic Emancipation he persuaded the King George IV to allow Catholics , Presbyterians etc to enter parliment. As I understand it while politically against it he wanted to avoid a revolt in Ireland and the Kings Consent was needed to relax the Oath of Supremacy. Church of England and all that.

    As a Victorian conceit it can be read as meaning he thinks he is Jesus.

    That said, it is such a clever witticism that he may have borrowed it.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 949 ✭✭✭maxxie


    Michael Collins
    Jack Lynch
    Sean Lemass
    Jim Larkin
    Phil Lynott
    John Hume
    Bernadette Devlin
    Cu Chulainn


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    maxxie wrote: »
    Sean Lemass

    I dont know about the rest of them but what is Charlie Haughey's Father in Law doing on the list :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,239 ✭✭✭Jimbob1977


    I bow to your superior knowledge of the Duke of Wellington, Fratton Fred :)

    I'd never heard of Tom Crean until four years ago. My mum bought me a book about his Polar adventures and I couldn't put it down. It was heroism from an age of discovery. His modesty and shyness meant that his exploits are largely unknown to many Irish people (until the Guinness advert)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    Jimbob1977 wrote: »
    I bow to your superior knowledge of the Duke of Wellington, Fratton Fred :)

    I wouldnt worry about it. Fred stopped short of acknowledging that the British had to rely on an Irish man to lead them to victory at Waterloo.

    Its like Parnell led the campaign against flogging in the British Navy, whereas the British Navy brought us tobacco and the potato .


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    Jimbob1977 wrote: »
    I bow to your superior knowledge of the Duke of Wellington, Fratton Fred :)

    I'd never heard of Tom Crean until four years ago. My mum bought me a book about his Polar adventures and I couldn't put it down. It was heroism from an age of discovery. His modesty and shyness meant that his exploits are largely unknown to many Irish people (until the Guinness advert)

    it is one of those sayings that no one ever looks up because it is accepted as coming from Wellington. i think it was snickersman who enlightened us on here.
    CDfm wrote: »
    I wouldnt worry about it. Fred stopped short of acknowledging that the British had to rely on an Irish man to lead them to victory at Waterloo.

    Its like Parnell led the campaign against flogging in the British Navy, whereas the British Navy brought us tobacco and the potato .

    Rum, Sodomy and the spud :confused::D


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