Looking at ourselves - So, who is Ireland’s greatest?

LISTS that aim to honour greatness are usually no more than a snapshot of the moment we live in.

At their best they might just be cultural self-analysis by numbers but they are always arbitrary and subjective. They say as much, maybe even more, about the compilers as they do about those honoured by inclusion.

As often as not, lists generate as much heat by their exclusions as they do through inclusions. The final list of 40 contenders offered for consideration in a voting process to identify the Greatest Irish Figure, drawn up for RTÉ, is just that.

Unavoidably, considering how it was compiled, it overlooks some who have had a profoundly positive influence on shaping this country – Horace Plunkett, Edmund Rice, and Dr TK Whittaker in modern times – and includes others whose contribution can only be described, even with the greatest possible generosity, as limited, utterly transient and, well, insignificant.

The list was complied for RTÉ by a market research firm because the national broadcaster thought that would be a more democratic way to compile such a list. Whether democratic impulses, no matter how warming, have any worthwhile place in deciding the relative virtues and legacies of various people is another argument, but it is very hard to believe that RTÉ could not have, through its own efforts, arrived at a list at least as meaningful as the one offered. Surely, it is one of the functions of an institution as subsidised, as culturally significant and as central to our affairs as RTÉ to have an opinion in these matters? Defining the starting line for such a process through a vox pop was a cop out. It ignored all of the expertise at RTÉ’s disposal while making a pretence at inclusion that only undermines the process.

Be that as it may, it is very worthwhile and one open to everyone at www.rte.ie/tv/irelandsgreatest/. If it makes us consider – rather than just like – and with as much valid historical perspective as we can muster, Irish people and their contributions to the world it could be a very valuable exercise. If it makes us separate the chaff from the wheat and understand why we differentiate, it should be very rewarding and maybe encourage us to do the same with contemporary figures.

Nevertheless, some omissions are glaring and no matter how desperate the race for TV ratings is, it is hard to understand why there are so very few women and why some of these were not included: Vincent O’Brien, Rory Gallagher, Ernest Shackelton, Paul Henry, Jack B Yates, Samuel Beckett, Seán O Riada, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien, Brian Friel, William Rowan Hamilton, Éamon de Buitléar, Robert Boyle, John Tyndall, John McCormack, Maureen O’Hara, Conor Cruise O’Brien, Edmund Burke, Alan Brooke and Fr Theobald Mathew... and whoever you fancy yourself. It is particularly remarkable, though understandable, that no churchman is even mentioned. This list of 40 does suggest, however, that we need to bring a new enthusiasm to the way we teach history and a new perspective to the way we judge the world around us.