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Michael Collins tops IrishCentral's Ireland's Greatest Person Poll

Michael Collins wins out over James Connolly and Bono as Ireland's greatest person

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Friday, September 24, 2010, 7:09 AM

Updated Friday, September 24, 2010, 7:15 AM

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Michael Collins has won the IrishCentral.com Ireland's Greatest Person Poll by a landslide with 58 percent of the votes. 'The Big Fella' received an overwhelming majority of the votes showing he still pulls the populist vote.

In second place came James Connolly with 16 percent, in third was Bono with ten percent, the John Hume with eight percent and Mary Robinson with just five percent.

We were prompted to publish the poll as RTE (Ireland's national broadcaster) have created a competition to see who Ireland will vote in as the greatest Irish person ever. The show has sparked a massive interest in Irish Americans.

As part of the show Irish celebrities and political figures picked famous Irish figures and became their champions. Michael McDowell a Senior Counsel and former Minister for Justice chose Michael Collins to champion.

Collins is generally thought to be one of the most influential figures in creating the Irish republic so it is not wonder that he is still topping the votes on the popularity scale.

During his lifetime he was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and MP for Cork South in the First Parliament of 1919. He was also the director of Intelligence for the Old IRA and a member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both chairman of the Provisional Government and commander-in-chief of the National Army. Throughout this time, at least as of 1919, he was also President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

He was killed in an IRA ambush in 1922 having accepted that Treaty that partitioned the country. Over 300,000 mourners attended his funeral.

The final five on the list also includes James Connolly, Bono, John Hume and Mary Robinson.

James Connolly, though Scottish-born played a huge role the 1916 Easter Rising and built much of the framework for the Irish state. He was shot by a British firing squad after the Easter Rising.

Bono, aka Paul Hewson, is the lead singer from the internationally famous U2. He has become just as well known for his good works around the globe and for his role as ambassador.

John Hume was one of the main architects in the Irish peace process and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He gave over his life to helping to resolve the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Europe's longest running conflict.

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sirpeter | Sep 30, 2010, 06:32 PM EDT

@kurtjohnson..The mainland british aristocracy had only contempt for Irish protestant landlords for a number of reasons..They were absentee landlords living in England who relied on agents to collect rent back in Ireland.They didn't work and just lived off the rents.For want of better words all they did was party and live it up and took no interest in their Irish estates and only cared about the amount of rent they could get.This attitude had a huge bearing on famine relief.When the Irish peasant couldn,t pay the absentee landlords were left with very little income.The british aristocracy had an attitude to let the absentee landlords stew in it,which is why relief from England was slow in coming and inadequate.It was the lazy absentee landlords they were trying to get at,and the Irish peasant starved because of that. As for the enormous military presence during the famine,they had to protect the Wheat,Barley,Oats,Cattle,Pigs ect,that were been exported to a better market,also the young Irelanders rose up in rebellion in 1848.Also the landlords were delighted to be rid of the indigenous inhabitants because England's population was rising sharply in the industrial cities and Cattle now was getting very profitable so they wanted the people gone.Ireland was in a very good position for breeding Cattle,been near England.Wheat,Barley,Oats can be transported over long distances,But they needed Ireland for a fresh supply of meat which only took two days sailing to England.Hope that is what you wanted explained.

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kurtjohnson | Sep 29, 2010, 09:44 PM EDT

sirpeter - I had never heard that theory re: the attitude of the mainland brits toward the useless-eater phony anglo aristocracy. What explains the enormous military presence the brits had here during the famine or their celebratory triumphalism to the clearing of the indigenous inhabitatnts?

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sirpeter | Sep 29, 2010, 09:43 PM EDT

The attitude of the rich in the 19th century was that,they were rich because God favored them..and the poor were poor because they were dirty and it's there own fault and barely worthy of life,that was just the way it was...It was a mind set.

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sirpeter | Sep 29, 2010, 09:29 PM EDT

@seanomelbourne..Some call it a genocide,but it was never a genocide..When the crap hit the fan in 1845..That attitude of the British towards the Irish ascendancy class (protestants)was that they were a bunch of good for nothing lazy cu*ts...so they wanted to let them stew a bit..the fact that a million peasant's died because of that was secondary..At that time.,.no one cared about the poor,certainly not the rich.

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sirpeter | Sep 29, 2010, 09:11 PM EDT

Wizzy ..you said Prussia was the Catholic bit of Germany,your a fool,you don't get anything right,you are out of your league,why don't you just shut up.Christ if we had a united Ireland, you and your family would drop the IQ of Ireland so much,we would be known as the special people..Bavaria is the Catholic part of Germany you thick sh*it.

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seanomelbourne | Sep 29, 2010, 07:54 PM EDT

Wiz forgot to mention the largest christian denomination in Britain is Roman Catholicism and the Anglicans are queuing up to join the RC's. Wizzy is in a tizzy it's all to much for him his head is about to explode.He,s suffering information overload.

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sirpeter | Sep 29, 2010, 03:43 PM EDT

wizzy..you're just a pri*ck with no point..just a load of crap

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hancock | Sep 29, 2010, 08:58 AM EDT

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kurtjohnson | Sep 28, 2010, 08:57 PM EDT

Wizzy wants us back in the fold of that contrived proto-bolshevik "nation" which, incidentally, has been named as Europe's most miserable place to live. Curious that momentum for independence has been building over the last few decades in the real nations which are held captive in that "britain" thing.

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seanomelbourne | Sep 28, 2010, 07:48 PM EDT

Fair enough sirpeter I never refer to the failure of the spud a a famine,but as a weapon used by the English to weaken the resolve of the Irish people. A deliberate act of genocide.

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hancock | Sep 28, 2010, 12:13 PM EDT

Wizzy another KO for you. Pick up your teeth and go back to london.

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sirpeter | Sep 28, 2010, 08:38 AM EDT

@seanomelbourne..He might be trying to pull my chain or he might actually believe the sh*t he posts,either way i like correcting him on his posts. A lot of Americans don't know the complexities of Irish history,Even English University level history on Ireland is very distorted and thought in a very clever way to gloss over the real facts.Even the Irish government are careful how they teach kids about Irish history (ie The potato crop failed and so a million people died because they all lived on potatoes) They fail to give the reason that if your family has a quarter of an acre to live on,the best crop in the world and the most nutritious is the potato and the Irish peasant was in fact healthier then the English peasant who had to economize with the bread and whatever else they might have. The impression people/kids get is that the Irish were stupid for depending on one crop and that's why we had a famine.Even the use of the word famine annoys me. A famine is caused by the general scarcity of food to which there was none.The British exported enough to feed double the population. Nature may have brought the potato blight,but the English caused the death of a million by not closing the ports. Wizzy by his ignorance gives me a chance to post a few insights into the truth about Irish history and not through the view of a Pro British educational system.So Wizzy keep going you're great fun.

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seanomelbourne | Sep 28, 2010, 12:22 AM EDT

Why do you allow the wizard of idiots to pull your chain? He's a moron

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kurtjohnson | Sep 27, 2010, 08:56 PM EDT

Wizzy the time for your diseased terror state is starting to tick as the people of the nations which comprise it, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and even the English, begin to wake up to the fraud of this rigidly class based commercial oligarchy posing as a "democracy." As noted in mainstream articles, britain is the worst place to live in Europe and its inhabitants aren't coping well: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20100922/tuk-great-britain-is-worst-place-to-live-dba1618.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/07/people-unable-cope-modern-life-study Unlike your phony gangster state, the Irish people comprise a real indigenous nation with a heritage extending back milennia. Of course, a nation is the premise upon which a real political order can be built - no need for your medieval proto-bolshevism or rigid class structure. Regarding the anti-catholic garbage, see Kincora House for typical loyalist behavior towards children or Holy Cross where they shouted all forms of degenerate filth and even displayed pornography to young school children.

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sirpeter | Sep 27, 2010, 07:54 PM EDT

Wizzy...Name me one successful country in the world, which is Roman Catholic? None!..You can't be serious wizzy.Most of Europe is Catholic man,France,Spain,Portugal,Italy,Half of Germany,Poland and most of Ireland.Most of those countries had empires at some stage and were powerful,are they all failures? I hate to tell you this wizzy,but the only failure in Europe in the last 50 years was your little statelet of Northern Ireland.Jesus wizzy I don't think you can be saved from yourself.Don't have any kids for fu*k sake.

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