Louth, Dundalk and Locality Information Sources: People of Note

The Shackleton of his day, Leopold McClintock (1819-1907) from County Louth was the leading Arctic explorer of the Victorian era. He undertook four major voyages, epic sledge journeys, and was the first to bring definite information on the lost Franklin party. He then rose to admiral and advised Robert Falcon Scott before the Discovery expedition in 1901. After his death a memorial plaque was unveiled at Westminister Abbey, portraits were hung in the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the McClintock Channel in the Arctic was named after him.

Seamus Heaney has coupled Patrick Kavanagh (1904-67) with W.B. Yeats as the two most influential figures in 20th-century Irish poetry.

In 2002, an eighty-five-year-old former civil servant was voted âe~Irishman of the Centuryâe(tm). Widely regarded as âeoethe architect of modern Irelandâe, T.K. Whitakerâe(tm)s life spans the history of the Irish state in whose economic, social and cultural evolution he played an integral and influential role. Born in Rostrevor, County Down, reared in Drogheda, County Louth, from modest beginnings, T.K. Whitakerâe(tm)s meteoric rise through the ranks of the civil service saw him at 39 years become the youngest Secretary of the Department of Finance. His was the quiet presence, the rational and informed voice behind many of the most momentous events in recent Irish history. His inspirational paper Programme for Economic Development became the blueprint for Irelandâe(tm)s regeneration in the 1960s. As Governor in the 1970s his vision and purpose transformed the Central Bank into a dynamic institution. And, as advisor to Taoiseach Jack Lynch and other political leaders, he played a crucial role behind the scenes in the movement towards peace in Northern Ireland. Drawn from in-depth interviews conducted with Dr Whitaker and his family, as well as exclusive access to his personal papers and correspondence, in Portrait of a Patriot author Anne Chambers reveals the quite extraordinary extent and diversity of T.K. Whitakerâe(tm)s work on behalf of the Irish State; his relationship with Irish and international political figures such as De Valera, Lemass, MacBride, Costello, Sweetman, Lynch, Haughey, FitzGerald, Oâe(tm)Neill, and Whitelaw; his policy struggles with governments and individual ministers. This personal and intimate biography also introduces Ken Whitaker the family man, his motivation, humour and compassion; the personal losses endured and the many highlights enjoyed. T.K. Whitakerâe(tm)s life story is a model of excellence, integrity and public duty, and as such is all the more relevant today when such practical patriotism seems largely absent in twenty-first-century Ireland.