麻豆社

The broadcaster and novelist Melvin Bragg was sounding just a little bit defensive when I talked to him the other day. He鈥檚 promoting his new book at the minute, Twelve Books that Changed the World, and has irritated a lot of fellow writers by not including a single novel on his list. Bragg鈥檚 dozen also leaves out Milton, but includes the first rule book of the Football Association and Britain鈥檚 first sex manual. You can鈥檛 please everybody. But it got me wondering: could I come up with a dozen Irish books that changed the world? I know that any attempted list is bound to start a row. But, after many, many office debates, here is my very tentative list (in no particular order). Let battle commence. (P.s., Yes, I tried to think of a book by a female author.)

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922). Topping most lists of the best novels of the 20th century, though famously difficult to read, Ulysses weighs in at 267,000 words. Joyce's groundbreaking stream-of-consciousness technique and his innovative approach to language, ideas, and the novel as a form, changed the direction of subsequent western literature and helped Joyce earn wide acclaim as the most influential writer of the 20th century.

Harry Ferguson, Patent Specification for the Ferguson tractor system (1926). The Northern Irish inventor who gave the world its most influential tractor and transformed modern agriculture. Henry Ford said Ferguson was the equal of the Wright Brothers and Thomas Edison.

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Burke is often described as the father of modern conservative thought. His most famous book continues to influence leading conservative thinkers in their view that societies are best transformed by gradual change rather than political upheaval.

James Ussher, Annals of the World (1658). Ussher was Archbishop of Armagh when he calculated the date of the earth鈥檚 creation: 23 October, 4004 BC. Though clearly an idea at odds with subsequent science, Ussher's book influenced popular thought for two centuries, and still plays a key role in the battle between creationism and evolution.

Frank Pantridge, A Mobile Intensive-Care Unit in the Management of Myocardial Infarction (1967). With this article, published in The Lancet, Professor Pantridge, a cardiologist at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, announced the development of the portable defibrillator, which has since saved the lives of countless cardiac patients and revolutionised emergency medicine across the world.

Oscar Wilde, De Profundis (1905). Written from his prison cell at Reading Gaol, this explosive love letter has become a classic text in the politics of sexual identity and a sustained indictment of social intolerance.

Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist (1661). Born in Lismore Castle, in county Waterford, Robert Boyle is the founder of modern chemistry and this book, still regarded as a scientific masterpiece, marks the beginning of that new experimental science.

Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897). The first full-length vampire novel, and one of the most influential gothic novels of all time, has had an enormous impact on global popular culture. It has inspired over a hundred feature films, a gothic tourist industry, and a dizzying variety of psychological interpretations.

John Bell, On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox (1964). Born in Belfast and educated at Queen鈥檚 University, John Bell鈥檚 five-page paper transformed the study of Quantum Mechanics. 鈥淏ell鈥檚 Theorem鈥� earned him a Nobel Physics prize nomination, and, had he lived longer, he might well have received it.

Francis Hutcheson, Inquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725). The expression 鈥渢he greatest happiness of the greastest number鈥� was coined by this Irish thinker, who was born in Drumalig, county Down. A key figure in the Enlightenment, his ideas had a massive impact on American thinkers, such as Thomas Jefferson, and on the development of Utilitarianism 鈥� an approach to ethics which continues to have a massive impact on our world (and often summarized in the claim that 鈥渢he ends justify the means鈥�).

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver鈥檚 Travels (1726). Ireland鈥檚 internationally recognized writer is the undisputed master of satire. His most famous book is the most enduring satire in the English language, exploring politics, class, race, gender, science, education, love, and much more, with such merciless wit and cutting accuracy that its influence continues to pervade every aspect of popular culture 鈥� not to mention the nursery.

Ernest Walton, Disintegration of Lithium by Swift Protons (1932). The Methody-educated Irish physicist shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951 with Sir John Cockcroft for splitting the atom. This single page-letter to the scientific journal Nature is a model of elegant understatement 鈥� after all, they were merely giving birth to the atomic age.

(Reprint from the Belfast Telegraph, Saturday 22 April 2006)

This is just my list; and, like all lists of its kind, it may say more about me than about Ireland, books or the world! But feel free to disagree (though give me some arguments at least), or even suggest your own alternative list in the comments.