Boards.ie Irelands Greatest Person

ejmaztec

Pherekydes wrote: »

LOL. He didn't have a PRSI number either. Nor did he fly around the world on dem flying machine thingies.

Just another feckin tax dodger, what a let down.:(

Degsy

Rebelheart wrote: »

He lost both his toes due to frostbite.
.

He only had the two to start with?

entropi

/scans for the name Bono, or sneaky inclusion of Paul Hewson...not there!!:D

Proper poll indeed:)

ironictoaster

Parnell, uncrowned king of Ireland.

Scorpion Sting

I would've included Mr. Larry Mullen Jr. for creating the best rock band of all time.

Nulty

Kevin Myers wrote: »

It's probably himself.

If I understand what Kevin Myers is saying then I agree.

Arkle For President!

K-9

Frank Aiken. An example of what Ireland could do in the UN.

grenache

It can only be the Big Fella. He managed to dismantle a system 700 years in the making in less than 5 years.

galwayrush

grenache wrote: »

It can only be the Big Fella. He managed to dismantle a system 700 years in the making in less than 5 years.

I always imagined that we would have a had a vastly more progressive country not dominated by the Catholic Church if Collins had not being taken out.

Le King

The great Parnell.

Joey the lips

Dont forget your shoval.

sbsquarepants

jebforever wrote: »

I would've included Mr. Larry Mullen Jr. for creating the best rock band of all time.

Larry mullen didn't form the e street band!

Nulty

grenache wrote: »

It can only be the Big Fella. He managed to dismantle a system 700 years in the making in less than 5 years.

Is that Michael Collins?

What, you think he did it with one hand tied behind his back? You make it sound like he stopped Global Warming. I'm all for MC but lets get some perspective

El Siglo

Toss up between Robert Boyle and Arthur Wellesley, but Wellesley did beat Napoleon's Grand Armee!
Stupid the way there was no; Beaufort, John Joly, George Boole, William Parsons, John Tyndall, William Thomson, or Ernest Walton on the RTÉ list. RTÉ is absolutely retarded, Stephen Gately was only on the list because of his death, yet there was no sign of Walton and he's the only Irish person to win a nobel prize in Physics. Fucking joke so it is, just goes to show you what's more important artsy fartsy shite and semtimentality, while actual achievement receives no recognition.

telekon

Daniel O'Connell the first proper peaceful democratic attempt at furthering catholic (ie irish) rights and a forerunner to independence. did this pretty much singlehandedly too. plus he was great at the ol' monster meetings.

Pherekydes

El Siglo wrote: »

...Arthur Wellesley, but Wellesley did beat Napoleon's Grand Armee!

He spent most of his life in service of the British Empire, so surely his claim is to be considered a Great Briton, no? Indeed, he finished 15th on the BBC's list of 2002.

IMO, Ireland's greatest person should be a statesman/woman (in the Irish sense) or a scientist/inventor. Light entertainers and sports people have absolutely no place in a poll of this sort.

El Siglo

O'Connell was a legend alright, but he did fuck the forty shilling freeholder over and that was the group that he campaigned for.
I'm annoyed to Collins getting such a high rating, if for some reason he had lived longer and managed to reunify the North with the Free State then I'd be happy, but he didn't do that. He definitely didn't dismantle a system that had stood for 700 years, it took 100,000 soldiers to dismantle a system that had stood for 120 years.

El Siglo

Pherekydes wrote: »

He spent most of his life in service of the British Empire, so surely his claim is to be considered a Great Briton, no? Indeed, he finished 15th on the BBC's list of 2002.

IMO, Ireland's greatest person should be a statesman/woman (in the Irish sense) or a scientist/inventor. Light entertainers and sports people have absolutely no place in a poll of this sort.

The same could be said about Pearse, Plunkett, Connolly et al., sure they were all British, British passports etc... Let's not be pedantic here!:D
I do agree, sports people and light entertainers have no place in this sort of poll.

Pherekydes

El Siglo wrote: »

The same could be said about Pearse, Plunkett, Connolly et al., sure they were all British, British passports etc... Let's not be pedantic here!:D

They may have held British passports, but they served Ireland. Wellesley served the BE. I don't really care for a document they may have held.

DrumSteve

ballsymchugh wrote: »

no way, sonny knowles all the way!

yeah sonny is the man went to see a double header with him and syl fox. thats 2 hours of my life i wont get back...

xzanti

Where's Padraig Nally?

El Siglo

Pherekydes wrote: »

They may have held British passports, but they served Ireland. Wellesley served the BE. I don't really care for a document they may have held.

Yes but up until 1921, we we're a fair part of that empire. Would you call the Irish fellas who died in WWI traitors, because they were fighting for Britain? They held British passports, that makes them British, regardless of where their they identified themselves as. Infairness, have we not gotten over the usual anti-brit stuff now, and at least claim that an Irish born, British general defeated Napoleon. Seriously, he beat the 19th century version of Hitler, that's a pretty big contribution by one man from this country, regardless of who he was fighting for.

Pherekydes

El Siglo wrote: »

Yes but up until 1921, we we're a fair part of that empire. Would you call the Irish fellas who died in WWI traitors, because they were fighting for Britain? They held British passports, that makes them British, regardless of where their they identified themselves as. Infairness, have we not gotten over the usual anti-brit stuff now, and at least claim that an Irish born, British general defeated Napoleon. Seriously, he beat the 19th century version of Hitler, that's a pretty big contribution by one man from this country, regardless of who he was fighting for.

Who's talking about traitors and treason? Or anti-Britishness.

I'm just talking about great Irish people having served Ireland or furthered the Irish cause. Is it too difficult for you to grasp?

My own father served in the Royal Navy in WWII. He wasn't forced to go. He went out of a sense of duty to a cause. The Irish State, such as it was, remained neutral. But what my father did he did for the causes of freedom and democracy, not for the Irish state.

So don't start with the anti-Brit stuff now.

Flying Abruptly

Personally I voted for Michael Collins but I'm actually really suprised not to see DeValera on the list, surely one of the most influential people in Irish history in the last century.

Nulty

Flying Abruptly wrote: »

Personally I voted for Michael Collins but I'm actually really suprised not to see DeValera on the list, surely one of the most influential people in Irish history in the last century.

Yeah, and no Arkle.:rolleyes:

Poor Henry Gratten. Billy no Mates

aDeener

Biggins wrote: »

:pac:

I'm sure he did.

eh unlikely, he was a corkman after all - murphys or beamish

sron

Nulty wrote: »

Yeah, and no Arkle.:rolleyes:

Poor Henry Gratten. Billy no Mates

I gave him a vote so that with a few more he might make it ahead of Van Morrison. He was a fine man for the auld oratory though.

Rebelheart

El Siglo wrote: »

Would you call the Irish fellas who died in WWI traitors, because they were fighting for Britain?

Yes, yes indeed. At best, at very, very best, they were profoundly misguided. The fact that over 10,000 Irish Volunteers stayed in Ireland rather than fight for the British Empire, the most powerful empire in the world, says it all.

Rebelheart

El Siglo wrote: »

Toss up between Robert Boyle and Arthur Wellesley, but Wellesley did beat Napoleon's Grand Armee!

Yeah, much better to support destruction rather than creation, as long as the former is doing it for the British Empire and all its remarkably moderate aims such as controlling 25% of the planet earth.

Ah yeah.

Biggins

El Siglo wrote: »

...I'm annoyed to Collins getting such a high rating, if for some reason he had lived longer and managed to reunify the North with the Free State then I'd be happy, but he didn't do that. He definitely didn't dismantle a system that had stood for 700 years, it took 100,000 soldiers to dismantle a system that had stood for 120 years.

He only took control of those soldiers, organised their training, organised their arming, organised the tactics that they would be using to take on the British Empire, organised the organisations very effective intelligence gathering methods, organised also part of the monetary funding to keep it all going, organised the civilians (saboteurs) in peaceful disruption of the then British procedures within Ireland, etc...

..and that was only one side to him. Orator, eventual state representative on the world stage, and so, so on...

He definitely didn't do it all alone but by god, he was the right person at the right time, doing a job which by god, was done right.
We have a building in Dublin called The Dail and the reason its there is greatly down to his efforts more so than a lot of others - including Éamon de Valera.
That is in no way whatsoever to take away from their efforts too it should be said.

Others on the list are just as important to the state in other ways so it all boils down to peoples preferences in what they consider to be more important to them.

dr.bollocko

Just saw this now for the first time.
WTF. My name isn't on the list?

AckwelFoley

Didnt vote.

Paul O Connell is not on the list

friendface

I don't see George J. Stoney (The man who named the electron!!) :eek:

Tigger

Cheap Thrills! wrote: »

This post is so full of FAIL I don't know where to start.

Rory Gallagher and Phil Lynott would comfortably p!ss all over ANY mediocre muck u2 ever produced.

Van Morrison is indeed a [EMAIL="TW@T"]TW@T[/EMAIL] of enourmous proportions but Philo and Rory can not be mentioned in the same breath as u pathetic 2.

That is all.

phil lynott is english
where is robert emmett
or wolfe tone

james connolly was scottish btw but not in a pasport kinda way

Fago!

Seriously, why isn't facekicker on this list?

Mint Sauce

wheres willie o'dea and daniel o'donnell

Flamed Diving

No Jack B Yeats. This was man was a true genius.

Mint Sauce

was having a laugh with my last post but just noticed theres no authur guinness on that list

:eek:

baltimore sun

Philo wasn't English....

nice to see the majority voting a murderer as Ireland's greatest person,

pft

what about art guinness or john jameson....oh and jinx lennon! actually jinx lennon for feckin sure

Tigger

baltimore sun wrote: »

Philo wasn't English....

nice to see the majority voting a murderer as Ireland's greatest person,

pft

what about art guinness or john jameson....oh and jinx lennon! actually jinx lennon for feckin sure

phil lynott was born in england peolpe born in england are called english

if he was born in america by an irish mother he would be irish-americian so you can say he was irish-english if you like

the-dude

Two world famous men that should be top of any list.
Lord Kelvin
Ned Kelly

peter moore

El Siglo wrote: »

O'Connell was a legend alright, but he did fuck the forty shilling freeholder over and that was the group that he campaigned for.
I'm annoyed to Collins getting such a high rating, if for some reason he had lived longer and managed to reunify the North with the Free State then I'd be happy, but he didn't do that. He definitely didn't dismantle a system that had stood for 700 years, it took 100,000 soldiers to dismantle a system that had stood for 120 years.

This is the first time I heard that Michael Collins chose to die young.

Spiritoftheseventies

Really without De Valera on that list poll just doesnt hold up.

Thomas828

Tigger wrote: »

phil lynott was born in england peolpe born in england are called english

What? Then that means I'm English because I was born in London. If I'm English I shouldn't be here. -- by the way, I'd add George Bernard Shaw, James Stephens, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Oliver Goldsmith to your list.

Purple_Delish

Registered for boards just to moan about rte's appaling list.

In it we have a snob who insulted the country by leaving it's highest job, a pontificating tax exile, a communist, a freedom fighter with questionable methods (although it was war so I'm willing to say he was justified in his methods) and John Hume; who's an all around great chap.

The shortlist doesn't get any better. With a former botband member who's only in there because he's a) gay, b) dead or c) a combination of the two.

Where's sean lemass, where's robert boyle, where's beckett and yeats? Rte yet again disappoint

My name is URL

Purple_Delish wrote: »

Registered for boards just to moan about rte's appaling list.

In it we have a snob who insulted the country by leaving it's highest job, a pontificating tax exile, a communist, a freedom fighter with questionable methods (although it was war so I'm willing to say he was justified in his methods) and John Hume; who's an all around great chap.

The shortlist doesn't get any better. With a former botband member who's only in there because he's a) gay, b) dead or c) a combination of the two.

Where's sean lemass, where's robert boyle, where's beckett and yeats? Rte yet again disappoint

There was a shortlist of 40 to begin with & the public decided who the final 5 would be. Here's a list of the 40.. http://www.rte.ie/ten/2010/0322/irelandsgreatestfigures.html

you can't really blame RTE for who made the final list.. unfortunately

Teutorix

No surprises here. How come Irish people get such a raging boner over Collins? Sure he was a good man, a great man even. Just seems like everyone thinks he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Personally Noel Browne gets my vote (the general wasn't on the list :pac:)

Celly Smunt

Teutorix wrote: »

No surprises here. How come Irish people get such a raging boner over Collins? Sure he was a good man, a great man even. Just seems like everyone thinks he is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Personally Noel Browne gets my vote (the general wasn't on the list :pac:)

It's not michael collins,its liam neeson

Teutorix

pmcmahon wrote: »

It's not michael collins,its liam neeson

Fair point, if the film was ''Eamon DeValera'' the plebs would probably be sucking on his ass instead.