Ever had a tipsy conversation about who was right – Collins or de Valera? (No, just me?) Ever thought to yourself ‘that Adi Roche, she’s the greatest woman in Ireland’?
Well RTÉ are looking for Ireland’s Greatest (living or dead) and via face-to-face interview with 1,000 people (conducted by MRBI, they didn’t send Patrick McDonnell out with the microphone for this one) they’ve compiled the nation’s suggestions and there are a shortlist of 40 from which the national hero will be crowned.
Louis Walsh - Ireland's Greatest?
It works like this – the forty names were announced this morning on Ryan Tubridy’s show on Radio 1 and the public can vote for a top five. The top five will each be given a ‘champion’ (i.e. another public figure celebrity-type) who’ll fight their corner and there will be a documentary made about each one. Another public telephone vote will bring it all together on an episode of the Late Late Show in September, and Ireland’s Greatest will be crowned.
So who’s on this list you might ask?
Well of the forty, there’s an interesting few stats to be had:
20 are alive and 20 are dead
15 are from Dublin
Only 3 are women (Adi Roche, Sonia O’Sullivan and Mary Robinson)
6 are sportspeople
15 are from the entertainment field
….and there’s no Gay Byrne! (According to the rules, no RTÉ figures were included, neither were serving politicians).
Just give me the damn names you say? Right then…
Bono
Dr Noel Browne
Michael Collins
James Connolly
Eamon de Valera
Joe Dolan
Ronnie Drew
Colin Farrell
Garret Fitzgerald
Stephen Gately
Bob Geldof
Padraig Harrington
Charles Haughey
Seamus Heaney
John Hume
James Joyce
John B Keane
Roy Keane
Ronan Keating
Sean Lemass
Jack Lynch
Phil Lynott
Paul McGrath
Christy Moore
Liam Neeson
Daniel O’Connell
Daniel O’Donnell
Brian O’Driscoll
Michael O’Leary
John O’Shea
Sonia O’Sullivan
Charles Stewart Parnell
Padraig H Pearse
Christy Ring
Mary Robinson
Adi Roche
Wolfe Tone (the only one not listed with a first name on the RTÉ site – it’s Theobald lads)
Louis Walsh
Oscar Wilde
WB Yeats
What do you think Culchies? Who will you be voting for? Are there any glaring omissions? Where are TK Whitaker and Rory Gallagher?
Get on over to http://www.rte.ie/tv/irelandsgreatest to vote for your choice.
Stephen Gately. Jesus Christ.
Or, going by this list, perhaps that should read “Stephen Gately = Jesus Christ”. How did a member of a boyband earn a place above the likes of Rory Gallagher? I know Ronan’s done some great charity work, but Stephen? What am I missing here?
It’s a shame that there are only three female names on this list, but seeing as feminism was such a late-starter in Ireland, it’s hardly surprising. On that note, Mary Robinson deserves her mention for the work she did for the women’s movement in Ireland.
Seriously why are Stephen, Ronan and Louis there? I like Boyzone but they aren’t the greatest people in Ireland! Its an odd list! What are we judging? People who best represent Ireland? People who have done great things for themselves or Ireland? Glad to see Adi Roche and John O shea there!
I’ve taken a break since this list was announced and I’m still upset/saddened by it. There’s a lot of worthy people there but Louis Walsh? Seriously?
These could/should have been included:
Francis Beaufort
Samuel Beckett
George Best
George Boole
Robert Boyle
Tom Crean
Ronnie Delany
Lady Gregory
Arthur Guinness
Richard Harris
Patrick Kavanagh
Sean Kelly
Spike Milligan
Flann O’Brien
Peter O’Toole
Stephen Roche
Ernest Shackleton
George Bernard Shaw
Bram Stoker
Jonathan Swift
John Millington Synge
John Tyndall
Terry Wogan
I love the fact that Louis Walsh is listed between Wolf Tone and Oscar Wilde. I can just imagine the conversation.
@Sinéad: Nice post, quite the list and competition, will check out the website.
@Niall: Like your add ons, like Synge a lot, Richard Harris too.
I’ll throw in Michael Davitt, who was from Co. Mayo, involved in the Land League movement, Andy Irvine wrote ‘Forgotten Hero’ and sings it on Patrick Street’s ‘Irish Times’ recording, lyrics at this website:
http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiFRGTHERO.html
Stephen Gately? Seriously? Why on earth does he deserve to be on that list. At least Keating has done some good work when it comes to Breast Cancer awareness and fund raising.
And Louis Walsh? Do we really want to reward the man responsible for Jedward?!
Such an odd list! It’s funny that you can choose between Liam Neeson and Michael Collins!
I’d have to go for Michael Collins there. Liam Neeson does my head in (thanks to his shocking voice acting in Fallout 3!)
S’pose it’s a bit much to wonder why Johnny Moy isn’t on there. Yeah? Thought so *cough*
I am kinda surprised and disappointed my name isn’t there……
You wonder how the likes of Bono and Lynott would have fared if not for the trailblazing of the great Rory Gallagher.
My Ronan all the way!!
Do you judge by how influential they were, at home or abroad?
I’d pick Geldof & Bono for their humanitarion work; Joyce as our most influential artist; deV & O’Connell for having most influence on Ireland; O’Leary for his enterprising & Parnell for the parliamentary party process.
For the top I’d probably have to go for deV, despite all his errors.
Changed my mind, went for O’Connell.
Lists like this just make me weary. As if Ireland could or should be represented by this weird batch. And 3 women? For 50% of the population? What kind of country does that make Ireland? No scientists either. Only Michael O’Leary as a business man?
I think we should all boycott it and any mention of it after today. It’s pathetic.
It would have made a lot more sense to divide the list into different categories, like political, cultural, sport, etc. That way you wouldn’t have the bizarre notion that Christy Ring is as important as Daniel O’Connell (and more important than Michael Cusack, founder of the GAA, who’s not included). Even still, at least half the names shouldn’t be there. No scientists, and it’s a complete shambles as regards cultural heritage. Also, it’s odd that out of 2000 years of recorded history, there’s only four people on the list who died before 1900.
Blame democracy.
The process chosen for selection is a joke. The title greatest irish person should not be used lightly and now RTE have devalued the whole thing with glaring omissions and a host of dismal choices. So the only thing we can do is turn the tables on RTE and only vote for the turkeys thrown up. Vote often n early for the Gatleys/Joe Dolans/Louis Walshs!!!
I’m with Kieran. Let’s all vote for Louis Walsh. It would make a mockery of RTE’s show (well, more of a mockery than they have made it themselves).
I have to say this sort of thing really doesn’t interest me. I can’t find myself even getting annoyed about the whole charade. A TV program deciding who is the greatest Irish person? Please.
Quite frankly any poll of 40 people that has only 3 women on it isn’t worth the effort of acknowledging it.
This sort of list will always suffer from ‘recentism’
What’s interesting is that the idea comes from the Greatest Britons show that the BBC did in 2002. If you look at the wiki list of who the British public picked as their top 100, it puts us to shame. Can we really blame RTE for the results of a poll of the public? The public suck.
Here’s the link to the British list - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons
It’s ridiculous to think that there’d be more women on the Greatest list. The ‘greatest’ is generally based on achievement and impact; and history and society have dictated that women haven’t achieved anything until very recently.
@ bngr - well if that is the case (and it probably is) what about all the recent Irish women who should be on the list.
For that matter off the top of my head what about:
Susan Jocelyn Bell
Lady Mary Heath
Delia Larkin
Grace O’Malley
Maud Gonne (ok English born)
Nell McCafferty
etc?
like I said, that’s democracy for you. The champion of Iraq 100,000 deaths later, and determiners of Ireland’s Greatest with Boyzone.
paul mc grath is english born and james connolly was a scot. the whole list is a joke!!!
@Paul Smith You missed that Dev was an American.
I’m in despair. Does anyone in this country know any history any more? So much for our “educated” people. There is more qualification than education about.I suspect there are a lot of parchments of doubtful merit out there. Else why would we be nominating some of these “celebrities” before O’Connell, Davitt,Parnell and so many others to whom we owe so much. My vote would be for Daniel O’Connell who restored our self respect in grim times and managed to achieve so much by peaceful means. He inspired Ghandi.
We got a second go at Lisbon. Why not a second go at this vote? It seems we are quick but not deep thinkers.