63 Comments

• 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.

• 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?

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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

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

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

  KO

• 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.

• 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.

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

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

• 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.

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

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

• 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.

• 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.

• sirpeter | Sep 27, 2010, 07:13 PM EDT

  Wizzy (4)This election aroused sympathy all through England for the Catholics. The government became alarmed; and still more so when they found that the Association were preparing to return Catholic members all through Ireland, Wellington and Peel, FORCED by public opinion, gave way, being now convinced that emancipation was necessary to save the country from civil war or revolution. The credit of carrying emancipation is due to Daniel O'Connell; but he was very ably assisted by Richard Lalor Sheil.

• sirpeter | Sep 27, 2010, 07:13 PM EDT

  Wizzy (3)In 1823 the "Catholic Association" was founded by O'Connell and Richard Lalor Sheil; it was the chief agency by which Catholic emancipation was ultimately achieved. The Clare election of 1828:It had been recommended by the veteran John Keogh that some Catholic should be elected member, and should present himself and be excluded; so that the absurdity of disfranchising a constituency because the chosen member refused to take an oath that his own religion was false, should be brought home to the people of the empire. Keogh believed that this would lead to emancipation. A vacancy now occurred in Clare, as the sitting member Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, having accepted the office of president of the Board of Trade, had to seek re-election. O'Connell determined to oppose him. His address to the people of Clare aroused extraordinary enthusiasm, and he was returned by an immense majority.

• sirpeter | Sep 27, 2010, 07:12 PM EDT

  Wizzy.(2).You call the penal laws disgraceful,but they were put there by protestants,English and Irish protestants to keep Catholics oppressed.The Duke of Wellington was against Catholic emancipation,BUT was forced to change his mind because of public opinion,been forced to change your mind because you can see all hell break loose is not doing something for the Irish people.He was made do it by O'Connell.Why do you twist it around? Of course Wellington had to be the one to push it through..he was the English Prime Minister.He simply had to get Catholic emancipation through,otherwise it was civil war.

• sirpeter | Sep 27, 2010, 07:11 PM EDT

  Wizzy (1)..Sweet Jesus on earth is it the orangeman's book of twisted history you are reading.The facts you are posting are just not facts,you are in some sort of paranoid delusion when it comes to Irish history.You sound like the KKK in your way of thinking just plain mixed up ,you think you have it correct, and maybe you can fool some Americans because they haven't studied Irish history..but you can't fool me.And i'm going to correct every post you make on IrishCentral.Look i'm not against Unionist's I understand they have a tradition and i would be the first to argue for the Unionist tradition because it is important that we have peace on this island,and it's important everyone respects each other.I would be interested in hearing your point of view,but i just don't understand how you can say the things you say,you don't seem to have one fact right.You skip over things like they don't matter,but you don't want to see the dynamics that caused Wellington to change his mind on Catholic emancipation.Why do you leave out the man responsible for Catholic emancipation? and say it was the Duke of

• hancock | Sep 27, 2010, 01:24 PM EDT

  Wizzy you silly English dope.

• IrishMark | Sep 27, 2010, 12:52 PM EDT

  Ok wizard i see what you mean, Like when you spelt Bobby Sands incorrectly and called him Jimmy Sands!

• IrishMark | Sep 27, 2010, 12:41 PM EDT

  @wizard-IF you were half as educated or intelligent as you claim to be you would have seen in my post that not once did i try to link the two in anyway or claim they had the same plan for the future, but merely pointing out that the situation they were in was simiar. That you would take from my post that i was linking the two or that they had the same plan for the future of Ireland makes me doubt your intelligence. Collins never wanted to sit down with the british government but rather was forced to by the leader of his political party! Exactly what proof do you have that he was a drunkard, "an enemy of Collins said he saw it when he was a child"?? That`s precisely the type of investigative journalism that tabloid newspapers and womens glossy magazines employ! Also halfway through your post you call me a journeyman (which would mean i was a craftsman that has completed an apprenticeship) then at the end address me as sir!(which would mean i was a Knight)That you would post something so foolish is a mark of your intellect and i suspect your masters and phd are in wikipedia and b.s.,because they certainly are NOT in history or common sense!

• IrishMark | Sep 27, 2010, 08:46 AM EDT

  @wizard- So what you are saying is that wellington got the best possible deal for the Irish that was on offer from the british government but couldn`t get everything he wanted, however he could see it as a stepping stone to the day when the Irish would be able to get more power yes? In the same way that the treaty was the best possible deal that Collins could get for Ireland at the time, and only saw the treaty as a stepping stone to gaining complete independence. Wow, even with two masters and a phd you`ve still just made huge comparisons and pointed out major similaritys between your hero and a man you are trying to slander and vilify. Also history itself is not proof because it is based on the point of view of the side who writes it-see middle east conflict.

• kurtjohnson | Sep 26, 2010, 10:52 PM EDT

  Looks like not everyone thinks britain is such a paradise, Wizzy: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20100922/tuk-great-britain-is-worst-place-to-live-dba1618.html

• kurtjohnson | Sep 26, 2010, 09:20 PM EDT

  @wizzy the wasp - Compare Ireland as a Republic to its perpetual devastation when ruled by your beloved terror state. Of course, this british monstrosity has created the same nightmare all over the world with continuing effect - i.e. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel/Palestine. As a tiny illegally divided country with little to no natural resources and a hostile security council member for a neighbor, it's a wonder the Republic has been as politically and economically stable as it has been(see most other post-colonial countries for contrasts). Sadly, Ireland is suffering from the disease of degenerate anglo materialism/mass consumerism.

• seanomelbourne | Sep 26, 2010, 07:58 PM EDT

  The Wizard is just looking for attention ignore his silly drivel.

• STEPcoach | Sep 26, 2010, 05:54 PM EDT

  Ah just ignore the idiot, wiz. He's clearly a brit plant who's intent is to upset noble Irish men and women. Michael Collins (also the name of my first grandson, I'm proud to say) was a great Irish patriot. I wish we had him in America today to clean the toilet of Washington DC of the brit-wannabes we have in office. Erin go Bragh! Up Ireland and freedom!

• sirpeter | Sep 26, 2010, 05:45 AM EDT

  Well Done rgs5481.You are so right.For me the criteria for true greatness is to pay the ultimate price for the greater good.Since it is true that there was injustice and oppression up in Northern Ireland Bobby deserves to be right up there with other great Irishmen who payed the ultimate price.

• hancock | Sep 26, 2010, 03:37 AM EDT

  Nice.

• rgs5481 | Sep 25, 2010, 10:08 PM EDT

  I've not an issue with Michael Collins nor the others mentioned. However, it may be easier to vote for someone who was involved deeply at the turning of the last century. I certainly do not discount their bravery,love of country or sacrifices. But, to me, the purest love of country and countrymen, the willingness to resist with every last fiber of his being, ultimately by using the last weapon available - his body belongs to Bobby Sands. His writing draws us in as closely as one not involed in their struggle could be drawn in. He opens himself til he is raw, yet he never concedes his spirit. To survive, mentally and physically intact through many years of torture and unimaginable inhumane and putrid conditions speaks volumes of the strength of the man and his beliefs. I don't know if Bobby would have wanted to be MP, but if he had been allowed to live and had taken his seat, I would love to have witnessed that. Also, the impact of the man, his writings and his death has on people around the world yet to this day, speaks volumes. He inspires one to freedom, to understand the path of his life that led him to his final act of defiance of the oppressive authority of the British government. His kind shall not pass our way again and we are the worse for it.

• kateomprint | Sep 25, 2010, 06:55 PM EDT

  Will somebody tell how in the name did a nobody like Bono get into the middle of that competition. (Did he fight the British or maybe fed people during the famine times or tried to win peace for this Country) How could anybody but DaveFanning put somebody like him the same competition with say the likes of John Hume who really talks the talk and then walks the walk not like Bono who talks, talks, talks and still talks and does nothing but talk

• Seamus59 | Sep 25, 2010, 04:56 PM EDT

  Wizzy is a typical anti irish, anti Catholic and anti nationalist unionist/loyalist bigot and there have been plenty of them in the six counties down the years! He is also probably a member of the Ku Klux Klan's sister organization the orange order!

• hancock | Sep 25, 2010, 12:03 PM EDT

  Yeah nobody left or starved in Ireland when the English were in charge.

• hancock | Sep 25, 2010, 11:49 AM EDT

  We American idiots kicked you English a**holes out too. Thank God.

• hancock | Sep 25, 2010, 11:48 AM EDT

  What kind of dope are you wizzy?

• sirpeter | Sep 25, 2010, 08:07 AM EDT

  Wizzy is an Irish proddy and is very upset we didn't pick a prod as the greatest man in Ireland. He calls Catholic Micheal Collins a loser but a man who won and got the British out, except for the proddy bit up north who didn't want to share power with Catholics,but forgets the fact that Ireland had some great Irish protestant too like Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmett whom i have great respect for,but did in fact fail to remove the British as did Parnell.But Micheal won and wizzy the fact he was catholic didn't really matter to real Irishmen. The problem you have wizzy is that you appear to be protestant from what i can see by your posts,and like most protestants in Ireland still have this lingering superiority complex when it comes to Catholics (ie like's to think we are run by the Vatican ect.) Wizzy my advice to you is to forget what your daddy and granddaddy has told you,they were just misinformed bigots that's all. Irishmen of all creeds are running the country now and it won't be long before those protestant bigots up north will be made toe the line even more then they are doing now when a United Ireland comes about.Biggest party in Northern Ireland is a Catholic one now,but don't worry Wizzy,we'll invite you and your proddy friends to the celebrations and we'll set up a table in the basement for ye.

• sirpeter | Sep 25, 2010, 07:07 AM EDT

  @wizardofoz(3) On your answer me this point.I will answer it.First of all Napoleon was a despot and i never supported him,but what i was saying, was that the Catholics were so poor and oppressed that the despot Napoleon if he won,couldn't have oppressed the Catholics as totally as the British had done up to that point in history.Here's a little fact of Irish misery BEFORE the famine.In Skibbereen in West Cork,there was one bed for every 450 people,the rest lay on straw.A french traveler had this to say about Ireland before the famine. In every country you will find paupers and the destitute,but in Ireland you will find a whole nation of paupers. Now wizzy behave yourself if you are Irish born and live in Ireland,and stop calling our Irish American friends idiots,because you are only ranting bullsh*t and you are an embarrassment.

• sirpeter | Sep 25, 2010, 07:06 AM EDT

  @wizardofoz(2) Now here's the good bit Wizzy.Given that 95% of Ireland were Catholic, how many Catholics were in the British house of parliament? NONE!! NOT ONE CATHOLIC,because a catholic could not sit in parliament until catholic emancipation a quarter of a century later and even then a catholic couldn't vote unless he had land or property to the value of 10 pounds effectively disenfranchising the majority of Catholic Ireland.So it was the 5% of protestant Ireland who were in the British parliament, the very people who were given the land by Cromwell in the first place.Those MP's didn't give a damn about the catholic peasantry,and those MP's were a small fraction of the parliament and were ineffective most of the time unless they held the balance of power. So your argument wizzy is just pure crap on that point,despairing crap.

• sirpeter | Sep 25, 2010, 07:06 AM EDT

  @wizardofoz, (1)I don't know where you are getting your facts from, calling Collins a terrorist is stupid,anyone who fights against the establishment is always called a terrorist,George Washington was also a terrorist according to your reasoning as he also fought against the British establishment and for American freedom.Let me educate you some more on what you are saying and this time listen.The Act of Union with Britain was passed in 1800 and came into force in 1801 to make Ireland one with England.The Grattan parliament in Dublin was dissolved because the British were afraid after the Wolfe Tone rebellion of 1798 who got help from the French in the rebellion.

• seanomelbourne | Sep 25, 2010, 03:51 AM EDT

  The wizard of ignorance has spoken.

• hancock | Sep 25, 2010, 01:01 AM EDT

  He got those scumbags out, case closed.

• rorschach | Sep 25, 2010, 12:52 AM EDT

  I'd vote for Enya, given the choice.

• rorschach | Sep 25, 2010, 12:52 AM EDT

  Hey, what about Grania O'Malley??

• Shelagh | Sep 24, 2010, 11:31 PM EDT

  Such self loathing, a terrible disease in Ireland!

• Nelsonbarry | Sep 24, 2010, 06:45 PM EDT

  I wish Bono would put some of his donations into the new schools of the north that are trying to get the catholic and protestant kids to live together in peace.

• seanomelbourne | Sep 24, 2010, 06:44 PM EDT

  Without the signatories of the 1916 proclamation there would me no Collins he rose to fame on the execution of Pearse and his co-signatories.

• oldbear | Sep 24, 2010, 06:38 PM EDT

  I would like to know more about Irish patriot Michael Collins and his era. Sounds like the ilk of the American George Washington.

• murphy66 | Sep 24, 2010, 06:37 PM EDT

  James Joyce will be the only Irishman remembered a thousand years from now.

• hancock | Sep 24, 2010, 02:44 PM EDT

  In 1921 he got the shaameful scubags out. How's that?

• killowen | Sep 24, 2010, 02:33 PM EDT

  Collins got their attention Big Time with his IRA approach while Dev worked with England so that he and ilk would realize a ME homeland. The Irish neutrality approach was brilliant - it served as a breadbasket for the occupier coupled with a ready supply of manpower and womanpower for their Saxon brother entanglement. It amazes me how those mainland Gerrys never cottoned to the scheme.

• Sparklet | Sep 24, 2010, 01:59 PM EDT

  Hancock, who are you calling scumbags? You live in a nation that has occupied its fair share of nations currently. I live in one that is trying to right the wrongs of the past years. There's something mentally deficient about people who generalise about a whole nation. Most English people I know are decent, caring people, who aren't responsible for the sins of their forefathers. You seem to have the same attitude that Muslims have towards Americans, so I hope you're not hypocritical enough to object to that. English history in Ireland is shameful, but that's what it is - history. No-one can wave a magic wand and put it all right, but a united Ireland will happen.

• sirpeter | Sep 24, 2010, 01:53 PM EDT

  @wizardofoz..Does your foolishness know no bounds. The Duke of Wellington might be England's greatest man,but he certainly wasn't Ireland's.If Napoleon had won and defeated England,The 19th century in Ireland would have been alot better.Catholics would have got their land back and a million people wouldn't have been left to starve to death while those British protestant bas*tards took the plentiful supply of corn and cattle from their mouths and exported it out of the country and left them to die eating a rotting miserable potato.Even Catholic France would not have been as ruthless as that.

• hancock | Sep 24, 2010, 01:48 PM EDT

  He got the scumbag English out of most of Ireland.

• hancock | Sep 24, 2010, 01:37 PM EDT

  The people have spoken,

• sirpeter | Sep 24, 2010, 01:13 PM EDT

  @wizardofoz..uninformed dingbats everyone is? You think that, do ya? Let me educate you a little bit,those who went to negotiate the treaty,got the very most they could get out of the British,they negotiated tooth and nail for hours on end with some of the most able politicians in the world.At that time in history it was all England could afford to give Ireland,they had an empire to keep in line. The civil war was very bitter, AND GUESS WHAT? Sean MacBride WAS ANTI-TREATY and was imprisoned by Collins during the civil war.Collins upheld the will of the people,MacBride went against the majority of the people of Ireland. Do you think he might be a little bitter towards Collins and Arthur Griffith? Do you think Collins could have achieved all he did, if he was a drunkard and a womanizer?Do you not think that if he was with whores that it would have not been used against him by the Anti-Treaty people in of all places holy catholic Ireland.If it's one thing i know about Irish history,they all have a different story about events that happened.Micheal Collins signed his death warrant when he put pen to paper,he knew very early on what the British were going to offer and what they were going to get for Ireland,and he was a marked man.Even if he was drinking heavy,it had no bearing on the out come of the treaty.Maybe you might get drunk a few times if your days were numbered.Sean MacBride was only a young pup of 17 at the time,what did he know about men drinking and weather it effected the negotiations or not. He won IrishCentral's Ireland's Greatest Person Poll. History has shown Micheal Collins was a great man,Keep posting like that and history will show you were not a great man,but a plonker.

• sirpeter | Sep 24, 2010, 01:11 PM EDT

  @wizardofoz..uninformed dingbats everyone is? You think that, do ya? Let me educate you a little bit,those who went to negotiate the treaty,got the very most they could get out of the British,they negotiated tooth and nail for hours on end with some of the most able politicians in the world.At that time in history it was all England could afford to give Ireland,they had an empire to keep in line. The civil war was very bitter, AND GUESS WHAT? Sean MacBride WAS ANTI-TREATY and was imprisoned by Collins during the civil war.Collins upheld the will of the people,MacBride went against the majority of the people of Ireland. Do you think he might be a little bitter towards Collins and Arthur Griffith? Do you think Collins could have achieved all he did, if he was a drunkard and a womanizer?Do you not think that if he was with whores that it would have not been used against him by the Anti-Treaty people in of all places holy catholic Ireland.If it's one thing i know about Irish history,they all have a different story about events that happened.Micheal Collins signed his death warrant when he put pen to paper,he knew very early on what the British were going to offer and what they were going to get for Ireland,and he was a marked man.Even if he was drinking heavy,it had no bearing on the out come of the treaty.Maybe you might get drunk a few times if your days were numbered.Sean MacBride was only a young pup of 17 at the time,what did he know about men drinking and weather it effected the negotiations or not. He won IrishCentral's Ireland's Greatest Person Poll. History has shown Micheal Collins was a great man and not a plonker.Keep posting like that and history will show you were not a great man,but a plonker.

• sirpeter | Sep 24, 2010, 12:02 PM EDT

  @GeorgeDillion,I think you are the one a little mixed up.He was president of the I.R.B (Irish Republican Brotherhood)in 1919,he was not Anti-Republican he was Pro-Republic.Just because he didn't achieve a Republic,doesn't mean he was against it.They all wanted a Republic but all the could get was an Irish Free State.The Irish Free State was established in December 1922.When the civil war broke out the Pro-Treaty side were known as the Free Staters and the Anti-Treaty side were known as the Irregulars.Both sides wanted a Republic but the people ratified the treaty, so Collins and the provisional government's troops had to suppress the Irregulars under treat of the British coming back.The only people against a Republic and the Free State for that matter were the Unionists.

• SeamusMor | Sep 24, 2010, 11:28 AM EDT

  High King Brian Boru is the greatest Irishman ever. Michael Collins would have been born in a Scandinavian country if Brian Boru had not defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Ireland has been inhabited by humans for 9000 years. It is hard to imagine that her greatest people did not appear on the scene until the 20th century. To be truly great from an historical standpoint,one's impact must endure for the ages. St. Patrick and Brian Boru meet the criteria. 1000 years from now their influence will still be felt, and no one will even know the names of the top five voted for in this silly poll.

• eileenkny | Sep 24, 2010, 11:25 AM EDT

  I think he did what he had to in order to pull Ireland free. What would he have done had he lived? We'll never know, will we?

• GeorgeDillon | Sep 24, 2010, 10:17 AM EDT

  chieftain: I think you are a bit mixed up. Collins was ANTI-Republican.

• michaelidaho | Sep 24, 2010, 10:07 AM EDT

  If you are ranking these five people I would wholeheartedly agree with the first two spots. However, Hume should have been well ahead of Bono and Robinson. I do not know how these two even made the top five.

• Chieftain | Sep 24, 2010, 09:34 AM EDT

  My Grandfather served proudly underneath The Big Fella...Up the republic!!! Erin Go Bragh

• torbreezy | Sep 24, 2010, 09:28 AM EDT

  Well deserved recognition: My Dad would often tell me that as a young lad he was in the back of a "huge throng" (as my father called it) complaining he could neither see nor hear the "Big Fella" and then being passed aloft to the front and hearing the great Michael speak. Listening and relistening to Johnny McEvoy's rendition of the Ballad of Michael Collins would be an appropriate way of honoring the "Architect" of the Republic.