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About LinkBacksDe Valera was by far the most important Irish person of the 20th Century. It is bitter, irrational idiocy to suggest otherwise.
De Valera was by far the most important Irish person of the 20th Century. It is bitter, irrational idiocy to suggest otherwise.
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It's hidebound jingoism to rule out the alternatives.Originally Posted by Cogadh
De Valera was by far the most important Irish person of the 20th Century. It is bitter, irrational idiocy to suggest otherwise.
More important than JFK or Reagan?
What about Carson who created the conditions for a de Valera-style irredentist movement to come about, rather than the founder of that ultimately unsuccessful movement?
Or how are we defining "Irish person"?
The most influential politician to date is without a doubt Mary Coughlan
Although not a politician in the conventional sense and his influence only just gets into the 20th c. I think Dubhghlas de hÍde (the 150th anniversary of whose birth is this year) was the most important Irish person of the 20th c. Without him there would no national movement, no 1916, no War of Independence, no Pearse, no de Valera, no Collins. Five of the seven signatories of the Proclamation were members of Conradh na Gaeilge. Both Collins and de Valera, as well as large numbers of the rank and file, came to the national movement through Conradh na Gaeilge. The former would have ended up a middle manager in the British Post Office and the latter a maths professor in UCD.
Though Dev was probably the most important politician, Michael Collins was the greatest leader Ireland ever had.
Gerry Adams...without doubt.
Dev is undoubtedly the towering political figure in the history of the Irish state.
Mind you his incomparable electoral achievement needs to be tempered by the realisation that his main political opposition was a disparate coalition of embittered Free-Staters, Unionists, Redmondites, Agrarian conservatives with a bit of exotic Falangism thrown in for good measure.
Last edited by DSCH; 24th February 2010 at 03:18 PM.
There was pleasure in paradise, but no excitement - Milan Kundera
Important? Michael Collins - he delivered the country we have regardless of whether you agree with it or not. DeV a close second.
Best?: Proably Lemass, modernised this country and repaired much of DeV's damaging legacy.
From a purely political pov, Haughey. His antics have coloured the last 45 years of Government and dramatically altered the perception of FF from the Lemass image, to the 'anything to get ahead' impression many hold today.
Noel Brown..
Followed closely by Sean Lemass......
You could talk about influence all day.
For example, without Padraic Pearse's influence over the IRB, the Rising may not have happened, so the leaders would not have been executed, so Dev would've never gotten such huge support. Therefore, Dev owes his influence to another!
So, most influential Irish politician of the 20th Century? I say the likes of Strongbow, without him, Dev may never have existed.
The most influential politician alive during the 20th, I would still say Pearse, because his idealism shaped a revolution and continues to shape policy and (usually quite ridiculous) notions of Irishness.
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