What have the Irish ever Invented

[ASPGuru]

Surprised no-one has mentioned Irish Stew and colcanon (sp?).

[123456A]

Just GOOGLE it

 

though I admit that the suggestion for 'potatoes' made me smile.....

potato pie

potato stew

potato stroganoff.....

[Lady Star]

If they didn't invent this, they were among the first to recognise the need to collect academic information, and to teach... The monks in Ireland had the greatest libraries in what is now Europe during Charlemagne's rule, and he even sent his kids over to Ireland to be educated... This was pre 800 AD...

[Digsy]

3300–2900 BC—Construction of the Newgrange solar observatory/passage tomb in Ireland.

 

The Irish invented field systems didn't they?

[Tyranna]

But, they also invented:

 

In addition to the above,

The modern Submarine (Built by John Holland around 1900, it was rejected by the Royal Navy as a cowardly form of warfare, but that didnt stop the Germans from taking full advantage of this new invention!

 

The Stream Turbine railway locomotive (Designed to burn peat)

 

The first large Reflector telescope (At Birr Observatory, Co. Offally)

 

Numerous other inventions, particularly in recent years at various universities in Ireland, ranging from pharmaceutical advances to space and computer software innovations. For example, see: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/tech50/

[bluevan]

Where or why do we always make out as though the Irish are thick? I.e Paddy jokes etc, It must have originated from somewhere?

[artisan]

Where or why do we always make out as though the Irish are thick? I.e Paddy jokes etc, It must have originated from somewhere?

 

It is only Irishmen who perpetuate that myth, in order to get one over on Englishmen, the pretence that they are all simple lads from the bogs.

Irish jokes are not funny unless told by Irish comedians.

[Harleyman]

The tradition that the Irish are "thick bog people" can be traced back to Ireland's early days. The Normans and later their English descendents who lived within the "Pale" an area around Dublin came to look upon the Irish who lived beyond the Pale as uncouth sub human and ignorant people who were scarcely above the level of animals.

 

The English within the Pale or as they termed themselves the Anglo-Irish kept the Irish chiefs of the two most powerful native Irish clans, the O'Neills led by their chief a man who called himself The O'Neill and their bitter enemies the O'Donnells led by a man named Sorley Boy at each others throats by a system of divide and rule and by doing so diverted the threat of either of them becoming allies of the that arch enemy of England, France which had ambitions to bring Ireland under it's influence.

 

The native Irish at that time were not particularly catholic in their religious beliefs and the church in turn paid little concern to educating the Irish peasants who lived in the most primitove dwellings and spent their lives gathering sod from the bogs or working at a level near that of slave labour on the land belonging to land owning farmers.

 

This feudal system lasted for hundreds of years and Ireland became a nation of a minority of land owning educated gentry and the majority uneducated peasants.

 

After the Reformation of the English church starting with King henry VIII many of the Catholic native Irish chiefs of the north were gradually deprived of their land under King James the First and their lands handed over to Protestant Scots and English famers while these displaced Irish fled to the New World.

 

The humble potato was the source of nutrition for the poor Irish and when the potato famine occured in the mid 1800s they had the choice of starving to death or leaving the country to find a living overseas. Some came to England to work as labourers at the height of the industrial Revolution, far more went to North America and Australia and everywhere they went they were treated with disdain due to their lack of education and lack of hygiene.

 

In the New World they eventually established a place for themselves, the early Irish immigrants working alongsdie the Chinese coolies in laying the tracks for the railroads across the North American continent

 

Decades later in large American cities such as New York, Chicago and Boston they became major politicians and also moved into the professions of law and academia.

 

 

 

Unfortunately racial stereotypes persist even to this day so it's no surprise that amongst a minority of uneducated people in England the Irish are still regarded as being "thick".

 

They played a very major part in America's history however and many of their descendents were the Doughboys who came across to fight in WW1 and later the Yanks who arrived in Europe to fight alongside the English

 

And of course one became president in 1961

[Stan Tamudo]

Come on sid,

[KellieB]

The Irish invented the American identity, they all like to trace their roots back to Ireland and they were responsible for many innocent deaths on mainland Britain through their ignorant and endless supplies of money through NORAID (Northern Ireland aid) at the time and our government begged them to stop donations but they were ignorant of the facts and even welcomed leaders of the IRA into the white house.

 

Can anyone else see a bit of hypocrisy in this? America is now leading the fight against terrorism and we are backing them. Funny old world innit?