Ireland's Greatest

[3] To draw up an initial shortlist of 40 names, RTÉ commissioned an opinion poll of 1,000 members of the public,[4] carried out by Ipsos MRBI in late 2009.

[3][7] The ranking of the top five, and the advocates who each present a one-hour documentary about one of them, were as follows:[3][9] The following people were shortlisted:[1][3][7][8] The list of nominees for Ireland's Greatest was criticised by historians Diarmuid Ferriter,[10] Tim Pat Coogan, and Maurice Manning,[5] and Irish Times columnist Noel Whelan.

[11] They said that the list was skewed towards recent times, and that many nominees were celebrities from popular culture or sport rather than people who had made a lasting contribution to society; Ferriter said "It is going to be very hard to take this seriously for historians".

[10] The top ten were:[14] In September 2009, RTÉ ran an online poll in sponsored by Paddy Power to nominate Ireland's greatest sportsperson.

[17] The top ten was announced on 31 December 2009:[18] The other 22 were:[17] D. J. Carey, Eamonn Coghlan, Ronnie Delany, Ken Doherty, Mike Gibson, Johnny Giles, Kevin Heffernan, Alex Higgins, Jack Kyle, Eddie Macken, Tony McCoy, Barry McGuigan, Aidan O'Brien, Mick O'Connell, Christy O'Connor Snr, Mick O'Dwyer, Jack O'Shea, Mary Peters, Stephen Roche, Henry Shefflin, Michelle Smith, and John Treacy.

1. John Hume was leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party , recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize and key figure in the Northern Ireland peace process .
2. Michael Collins was a leading political and military figure in the fight for Irish independence.
3. Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland and also United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Global Elder .
4. James Connolly was a socialist leader, founder of the Labour Party and leader in the Easter Rising .
5. Bono is the lead singer in rock band U2 .
Ireland's Greatest Woman: Nano Nagle founded the Presentation Sisters .
Ireland's Greatest Sportsperson: Pádraig Harrington has won three golf majors .
Ireland's Greatest Scientist: Robert Boyle founded modern chemistry and discovered Boyle's law .