General

A society that does not learn from its mistakes may be condemned to repeat them. Ireland was a poor country, generated a once-in-a-century boom during our lifetimes and allowed itself to be hijacked by corrupt and cute right-wing solipsists.

We asked an informed and not unrepresentative group of people to list who they think are the most influential people in Ireland; and to rank them unattributably. We did not seek to influence contributors’ views of what “influential” means, except to say that it extends beyond politics and perhaps embraces “making a difference in society”; and that the candidates must be alive. The contributors did not express any views on the merits of the people they ranked. We aggregated the contributions mathematically to form the list below.

In the immediate aftermath of World War Two, as awareness of the horrific atrocities inflicted by the Nazi regime on Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled filtered out, there was widespread international agreement that systems and structures should be put in place to prevent future recurrence of such barbarity.

Lisb-ON. The Treaty is largely an exercise in housekeeping and democratisation, though it does not go far enough in countering the excesses of globalisation and includes some offensive provisions on defence and militarisation.

“The idea of building metro while letting bus services go to the wall reveals the ‘fur coat and no knickers’ mentality dominating our Department of Transport”. So wrote Fintan O’Toole in the Irish Times back in March.