The greatest Irish person ever

by Mark Humphrys

Inspired by the absurd "Ireland's Greatest" list (2010), I thought I would list my own greatest Irish people in history.

It is hard to express how stupid the "Ireland's Greatest" list is. It includes pop stars, actors, sports stars and other celebrities of the moment. Stephen Gately (a pop star), Phil Lynott (a pop star) and Adi Roche (the head of a small charity) are in the top 10 greatest people in Irish history!

The list includes many parochial, nationalist and extremist people whose influence on Irish history has probably been negative. The top spot went to John Hume, which is fine, but the others in the top 5 were a dodgy gunman and communist (James Connolly), another dodgy gunman (Michael Collins) and two people of very limited long-term importance (Mary Robinson and Bono).

The list included no scientists. In fact, it included no people who made factual intellectual contributions at all - no scientists, no mathematicians, no astronomers, no explorers, no philosophers, no historians. Irish history consists of violent nationalists and B-list celebrities according to this list. What a dumb lot it makes us out to be, compared with the soaring intellectual contributions made by those on the British list.

This page is my attempt to say that the Irish are not as stupid as "Ireland's Greatest" makes us out to be. Ireland too was part of the Western Enlightenment.

My List

Here's my list of the greatest Irish people ever. I've tried to pick people who thought or achieved something- something good and important for all of humanity, not just for Ireland.

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