Colm O'Regan: Sure, Cillian Murphy is great, but don't forget other outstanding Cork people

"People like Anne Bonnie, one of the world’s most famous pirates, terrorizing ships in the 1700s in the Caribbean in the way that Roy Keane might have patrolled the midfield"

Sat, 16 Mar, 2024 - 02:00

Colm O'Regan

Columnist with the Irish Examiner.

By the time you read this, Cillian Murphy’s Oscar win may have received the ultimate Irish honour: a St Patrick’s Day parade float in a small village.

My money’s on a Limerick village having a float with the slogan: “Cork might have Oscar but we’ve got Liam McCarthy” and on the trailer, a child in full Sciath na Scol kit will be brandishing a hurley menacingly at a floppy-haired classmate in a tux.

Whatever happens next, there's a side debate that will outlast any trophy. Last week Cillian was asked was he now the most famous Corkman ahead of Graham Norton or Roy Keane.

And like a Kerry manager asked about their chances in the All-Ireland he refused to entertain the very thought of it.

The website MeanwhileInIreland.com did a 2023 famous Cork people list. Michael Collins was number 1, but Collins is obviously at a disadvantage in that he can’t do any more to add to his fame, whereas Murphy is a young man and could still potentially run the country. Corkenheimer himself only makes 8th in this list.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is there in 5th, a legacy of him killing Michael Collins.

The rest are Rory Gallagher (2), Sonia O’Sullivan (3) Roy Keane (4) Frank O’Connor (6) the labour organizer Mother Jones (7) Graham Norton (9) and then “Harry Potter’s Aunt” Fiona Shaw is in 10th.

Strawpoll.com allows you to vote on a different list of 10. Christy Ring, Ronan O’Gara and Jack Lynch are in. There’s no room for JRM, Harry Potter’s aunt or union women.

I can see why people stay away from it. It’s fraught picking best-ofs in Cork. If you leave someone out, there’s war. I once did a gig at a black tie dinner in Cork and there were FIFTY-TWO people at the top table. It was a longer dinner table than Putin’s.

Even the AI bot ChatGPT gets nervous when you ask it to produce the Cork Fame List. “it’s a subjective topic with lots of different views” it wails.

But every time you ask it, although it gives a different list, each list still contains Michael Collins and Roy Keane. It might be an AI but it’s not an eejit.

What about Corkonians who should be more noted?

Anne Bonnie was one of the world’s most famous pirates, terrorizing ships in the 1700s in the Caribbean in the way that Roy Keane might have patrolled the midfield. She’s making a comeback being played by Minnie Driver in Our Flag Means Death.

Maybe Olive Beamish, suffragette AND descended from the pint people. Mary Elmes, who grew up in a chemist's on Winthrop Street and saved 200 Jews during the War.

Or Sake Dean Mahomet, an 18th-century Indian who settled in Cork and brought shampoo to Europe (not born in Cork but if we can claim Oliver Reed we can claim him). But there is one who rarely gets a mention, and yet is as key to Cork identity as drinking a supercan of Tanora and buying a single Benson and Hedges for 10p on Sheares Street.

John Atwater. Who? To cut a long story short he was a 15th-century Cork merchant who backed a Flemish pretender to the English throne who claimed to be a long-lost prince that had escaped being murdered by Richard III (yes, that langer). There are lots of details but let’s say one of the Coveneys sailed to England with Prince Harry lookalike Kevin De Bruyne and tried to rip the throne away from William. And that’s why Cork became known as the Rebel City.

Now let’s see you try and put that on a Patrick’s Day float. We’re going to need a bigger top table.