• Question: Do you think people from Ireland are just as good engineers as anybody else in the world?

    Asked by Sweeney:):) to Ashley, Catherine, John G, Laura, Ray on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Laura Tobin

      Laura Tobin answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Of course! Engineers are taught the basics of engineering and certain skills like logical thinking and analytical reasoning. It’s up to engineers to decide what to do with these skills and knowledge.

      You can find engineers in all walks of life – like did you know that Pat Kenny is a Chemical Engineer. If you look through the history of science and engineering contributions to the world, the Irish feature a lot – George Boole, Robert Boyle, William Rowan Hamilton, John Tyndall etc.. There was also John Philip Holland was an Irish engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the U.S. Navy, and the first Royal Navy submarine.

      We definitely punch above our weight internationally. Many of our engineers are employed by big US companies who have their European headquarters here like Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook etc…

      In the news today is Laurence O’Rourke from Mullingar, he is the ESA (European Space Agency) lander system engineer. Today is the first time a space craft will try to land on a comet. http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/generationemigration/2014/03/15/my-space-voyage-through-europe/

    • Photo: John Ging

      John Ging answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Definitely, we’ve invented so many things – the steam turbine, the submarine, the helicopter, the guided missile, the ejector seat, Guinness, quaternions.
      Prof Susan McKenna Lawlor in Maynooth actually designed a part that’s going to land on the comet today.

    • Photo: Catherine Conaghan

      Catherine Conaghan answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Yes, we rock just as much as the rest of them 🙂

    • Photo: Ray Alcorn

      Ray Alcorn answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      No. We are better certainly at a lot of engineering activities. Someone from a very practical typically Irish .. Say farming background, Has already got a practical and pragmatic sense of what will work. Once trained as an engineer the sky’s the limit.

    • Photo: Ashley Culbert

      Ashley Culbert answered on 15 Nov 2014:

      I think Irish engineers are as good anywhere. I work with lots of Irish engineering companies that have opened offices with Irish engineers in cities all over the world. These companies would not survive abroad if they were not as good as the companies they are competing with.

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