A world without Ireland

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

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.

c_man

England would get more rain.

See, they need us badly.

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.

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!?

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.

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.

faceman

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

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

NegativeCreep

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

squod

So much going for us........ If only Ireland was a bigger island! Fancy invading Europe anyone?

Wacker The Attacker

stek wrote: »

No Barak Obama!

That would have been a good thing.

Wacker The Attacker

NegativeCreep wrote: »

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

Who?

hardCopy

dollypet wrote: »

............no kerrygold?
OH THE HUMANITY!!!!

And with no Irish people around, who would take the horse to France?

We'd also have no nukes

NegativeCreep

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

Who?

Whaaat?! Download the album 'grace' this minute young man.

purplepanda

No Lord Kitchener :pac: Your county needs you