Watch: 100 years of Irish innovation ahead of Easter 1916 celebrations

24 Mar 2016

As we approach the nationwide celebration of the events of the Easter 1916 Rising, here’s a visual feast of all the innovators and milestones in tech achieved by this small island over the last 100 years.

Since the events that took place during Easter 1916 Rising, it’s safe to say that our island has achieved quite a bit considering our relatively small population, not to mention the periods of mass migration that have contributed to that.

People like James Martin were able to invent the plane ejector seat in 1946, while the nation’s largest hydroelectric power plant was built in Ardnacrusha in 1929, just a few years after the establishment of the Irish Free State.

And yet, the last 40 years in Ireland have seen the greatest upheaval in terms of technological advancements, with the introduction of major manufacturers like Intel, IBM and Apple in the 1980s, up until the 2000s when Google, Facebook et al. moved into Silicon Docks.

So, to mark the occasion, the angel investment firm The Lucey Fund has put together this nice roundup video of some of the major technological achievements that have happened here in the last 100 years.

Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the inclusion of a particular website not too far from these shores!

GPO, Dublin image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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