What have the Irish ever done for us?
Today — St. Patrick’s Day — we celebrate all things Irish but, as author David Forsythe points out in his book, “What Have the Irish Ever Done For Us?” there is a lot more to Irish achievement than shamrocks, Guinness and “Kiss me I’m Irish” hats.
Ireland, the author notes, has been making a positive impact around the globe for centuries, and what better time to celebrate some of those real Irish achievements?
THE SUBMARINE: As unlikely as it may seem the modern submarine is indeed an Irish invention, developed by John P. Holland from Liscannor in County Clare. The U.S. Navy purchased Holland’s design in 1900 and the USS Holland became the first commissioned submarine in history. Its success led to other navies also purchasing the designs including Japan and the United Kingdom.
LOS ANGELES: Without the efforts of Irish engineer William Mulholland, the city of Los Angeles could never have existed. Mulholland was the engineer responsible for successfully supplying the growing city with fresh water; he built one of the world’s largest civil engineering projects to transport the water from hundreds of miles to the east to the city, a system still serves the needs of millions of people every day.
POTATO CHIPS: The idea for flavored potato chips came from the aptly named Joe “Spud” Murphy, head of the fledgling Tayto Crisp company who in the 1950s developed a machine to add flavorings to the crisps as they were made.
THE TATTOO MACHINE: The tattoo machine was invented by Samuel O’Reilly of New York, who patented his design in 1891. Using a hollow, ink-filled needle, his machine was far more precise and delicate that the manual techniques of the time and was also much faster.
THE U.S. NAVY: John Barry, from County Wexford, was a successful officer in the new Continental Navy during the American Revolution. He is widely regarded as the the father of the American navy, serving as the nation’s first captain of the first naval vessel commissioned by the Continental Congress in 1775.
SPLITTING THE ATOM: The son of a Methodist minister born in Dungarvan, Ernest Walton was a research scholar at Cambridge, where, under the guidance of Sir Ernest Rutherford and with John Cockcroft, he successfully managed to split the nuclei of lithium atoms by bombarding them with a stream of protons. It was the first time an atom had been split and it was for this achievement that Walton and Cockcroft were awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1951.
CURE FOR LEPROSY: Cork doctor Vincent Barry played a vital role in developing a cure for leprosy, one of the most feared and misunderstood of diseases. He led a small team at Trinity College working on the related disease tuberculosis. In 1954, Barry was able to synthesize the compound clofazimine, which would become a crucial part of the multidrug treatment now used for leprosy around the world.
THE STEAM TURBINE: Developed in 1884 by Charles Parsons, son of Anglo-Irish astronomer William Parsons of Parsonstown (now Birr in County Offaly), the steam turbine was a major advance in steam engine technology. It enabled the direct generation of electricity from steam power and was installed at power stations around the world as well as transforming marine propulsion.
THE WHITE HOUSE: Among the world’s most recognizable buildings, the White House in Washington, D.C., was inspired by an Irish building and designed and built by an Irish architect. The official residence of U.S. presidents for more than 200 years, its design was the brainchild of a farmboy from Kilkenny named James Hoban, who based the design on Dublin’s Leinster House.
