Irish who are more famous/acclaimed abroad than here.

I posted this story from the BBC somewhere on After Hours when I read it last year. Still a fascinating woman, whom I have never heard of outside this article (although I heard of Shostakovitch's The Gadfly years ago):

The Irish novel that secuded the USSR

One of the most popular English-language novels of the 20th Century is almost unknown in the English-speaking world – a global phenomenon in translation, now neglected in its original form. The Gadfly, by Irish writer Ethel Voynich, was a sensation on the other side of the Iron Curtain – it sold over 5 million copies in 107 editions in the 22 languages spoken in the Soviet Union. The book inspired seven musical adaptations, including an opera by Prokofiev, five theatre adaptations, including an ‘official’ version by George Bernard Shaw, and five film adaptations, one of which featured a famous score by Shostakovich.

Also, Peter Lacy (1678-1751) from Limerick was a beyond exceptional Russian general in the 18th-century (and his son became a famous Austrian field marshal). With the craven anglocentricity of so many backward Irish-born people we never hear of such people and their contribution to the world.

Peter Lacy, ‘the Prince Eugene of Muscovy'