British engineer who gave the Irish a way out
In the BBC’s Greatest Ever Briton poll, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a well-known engineer, came second. Not as your columnist stated: “In third place was a guy called Robert Brunel, a little known civil engineer.”
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) is well known to any first- year student of civil engineering, of railway engineering and of shipbuilding. His genius was applied to building tunnels, bridges, railway stations, ships, docks and water towers.
London’s Paddington Station and the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash are but a couple of examples. I think it behoves us to get the facts straight, particularly when we refer to the builder of the Great Western Railway (from Paddington to Fishguard), a route which allowed escape from the legacy left by some of the subsequent suggested names who, as Mr Whelan suggested, “might make the cut into a shortlist of the greatest Irish person of all time.”
I am not sure why it is assumed that Brunel is a “less obvious, quieter hero.” I am not at all surprised that Isambard Kingdom Brunel emerged as a contender for the greatest ever Briton.
Perhaps this is a reflection of the different values given to technical/engineering heroes in our respective educational systems.
Maybe the debate begins here!
Joseph Keane,
Peake Cottage,
Coachford,
Co Cork.
