The genius of Ireland.

A news article, on the Irish Abroad website, was today brought to my attention by one of my readers, “Ajax”. The article is short but striking.

As everyone knows, it is not difficult to find a talkative or a friendly Irishman. But how difficult is it to find a highly intelligent one? The article suggests that that isn’t particularly difficult either. According to David Schulman, the International Honorary President of Mensa, the Irish are the most intelligent people in the world. He says this because Ireland has more members of Mensa than any other country in the world, per head of population. To put it somewhat ironically, it has a greater density of Mensa members, than anywhere else.

Now, of course, this could mean many things. It could mean that it is fashionable in Ireland to be a member of Mensa. However, his further evidence indicates that this is not so. When invited to appear on a quiz show, Mensa was unable to rustle up even two volunteers from Mensa to form a team. So, they are a shy, retiring lot and not particularly willing to come forward, or even be known as Mensa members. This does suggest there is no great social impetus to join up therefore...certainly no more than anywhere else and perhaps less so.

It should not be overlooked that joining Mensa requires the same steps everywhere and that everyone in every country has an equal opportunity to put themselves forward and be selected. The only difference between countries, potentially, is the percentage of people who cross the acceptance threshold of an IQ of 148 (according to the article...though I note the standard deviation of the test is not mentioned). Given this it does seem possible that, in Ireland, more people are above that threshold than elsewhere, though further research would be helpful to clarify this. There are two ways to achieve this: a high average and a typical standard deviation for IQ – or a more average average, as it were, and a greater standard deviation for IQ. Contemporary research would be needed to ascertain which it was, if it were either.

Whatever is the case, this statement by David Schulman, President of Mensa, does support the impressions and experiences I have of Irish people. They are a varied lot...but idiosyncrasy and “genius” are certainly to be found among them. It isn’t difficult to find a sharp Irishman (or woman) if you take a careful look.

The funny thing about this is that the Jews have the world’s greatest reputation for genius...but it could be that there is a little pocket of genius lurking in the western reaches of Europe, largely overlooked? I note that Israel was not top of the Mensa list.

Perhaps the Irish deserve a more complex reputation than that of heavy drinkers and brawlers. After all, as I noted before in another post, it wasn’t the Irish who rioted in the UK. It was the English. Who are the brawlers, then, I wonder?

For a small nation, of few people, Ireland has an interesting intellectual history, which also supports the observation of David Schulman. Perhaps I will highlight some examples in future posts.

Anyway, I am just going to get a cup of tea (note non-alcholic drink for an Irishman), to raise a toast to the genius of Ireland!

The article that references David Schulman, President of Mensa, is here:

http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irishpost/news/irelandtopsmensaleague.asp

As a final point, I note that this pre-eminence of Ireland in the Mensa membership per head of population is particularly surprising when the history of Ireland is examined. Ireland is a country with a pronounced brain drain over centuries. People left, because there wasn't the means to support them in Ireland...and so they emigrated all over the world. Typically, it is often the brightest who leave a country in disproportionate numbers, since they are the ones more likely to be able to find opportunities elsewhere. Thus, one would expect to find most of Ireland's intellectuals outside of Ireland...for their ancestors would have left long ago. Yet, enough remain, in Ireland, for Ireland to be top of the global Mensa league tables. That is particularly telling and is suggestive that there might be many more potential Irish descent Mensa members overseas. I wonder if the global records of Mensa might be scanned for Irish heritage in its global membership?

The country with a most obvious Irish influence is the United States, where about 41 million people claim Irish descent. They are particularly common in positions of influence over people, such as politics (think the Kennedys) and Hollywood (much of the "talent" seems to have Irish blood) and literary pursuits.

I shall write further, in future, on interesting Irish people of genius, in some way or other. In some cases, perhaps, their Irish ancestry has been overlooked, or is not widely known. This should be rectified, I feel. If there is genius, in someone, it should, at least, be credited to their ancestral gene pool - and that origin should be known, for it raises a whole people, thereby.

Declaration: I am Irish, by blood, on both my maternal and paternal sides. However, I haven't decided to join Mensa (though I could certainly do so, if I wished).

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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Evoking memories of Ireland.

Today, the most unaccountable thing happened: I stepped out of my house, in Kuala Lumpur, into the depths of the Ireland, of my childhood. It was the most uncanny feeling. It is also one I shall explain.

When I left home, today, the light was subdued, the sky being heavily overcast, so that the customarily so-bright-you-have-to-squint light, had been muted, to a dull, comfortable grey. Not only that, but there was a light drizzle falling, teasing with the unkept threat of rain to come. Opposite my house, there is a verdant field, of a plush green. This simultaneous conjunction of green, drizzle and greyness, suddenly convinced some deeper part of myself, that I was in Ireland. It was so like my childhood memories of the place: the incessant drizzle, the overcast sky, and its dullness of light, surrounded by endless green, that tumbles on, as far as the eye can see. It felt, in that moment, so Irish, so characteristic of my childhood days – now very distant – in that green and moist land. It was the oddest thing I can recall feeling in many years. My body, at its core, was convinced it was in Ireland: all the cues were there, all the signs of that unforgotten land. If only I had not known, for a fact, that I was not there, I could have believed it with all of myself.

I was with Ainan, at the time – and I tried to explain to him what I felt and why I felt it. I tried to make him see what Ireland was like. He listened quietly, having no experience of the place. I realized, though, in trying to explain my sense of Ireland to him, that I needed to go there and show my children what it was like. I cannot let their childhoods pass without giving them some experience of the land that played such a part in my own upbringing.

Ireland was not long in Kuala Lumpur. An hour or two later, when I emerged from my University, the moment had passed: the sky was no longer so grey or dull, the light had brightened to its customary discomfort, the rain had stopped and the green was elsewhere. Yet, the reminder remained within me, echoing on. The message for me, is clear. I cannot forever remain in Asia, but must, some day return to Europe, even if only for awhile. Today, I had not gone to Ireland, but Ireland had come to me. There is meaning in that, it seems to me. Perhaps it is time, I returned and visited, once more – but this time, with a new family in tow. I wonder what they will make of it? I know this, however: should they visit, it will give them a sense memory, such as the one that today evoked for me. It will give them a memory that they, too, might one day recall, many years from today, when their father is old and their children are young. I have to give them that. It will give them a bridge not only to their own past, but to mine, too. Such a bridge is worth building: it is what ties us to whence we came.

Perhaps, when I am old, my children will speak of the time (s) they were in Ireland (and the UK). I will know, then, that they share some part of the world I grew up in. There is a beauty in that, a symmetry which those who reflect on life, can only find rewarding.

If I am still writing, then, I will tell of that day. To do so, will be to have come full circle, in a satisfying way. Until then, then…

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

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This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Kissing the Blarney Stone

There is a legend, in Ireland, that whosoever kisses the Blarney Stone, at the top of Blarney Castle, near Cork, Ireland, shall be bestowed the gift of eloquence. Indeed, the Blarney Stone is otherwise known as the Stone of Eloquence.

Apparently, over the centuries, the legend of the Blarney Stone has led Presidents, leaders, noted eminences, such as Sir Walter Scott and entertainers of renown, to wend their way to Blarney to kiss the Stone.

A couple of days ago, Syahidah, my wife, was telling Fintan, six and Tiarnan, three, the legend of the Blarney Stone. Funnily enough, though I am the Irish one in the family (well, pure Irish...our sons are half-Irish), my wife took it upon herself to tell some old tales of Ireland to the kids. They listened, as usual, most intently, to the tales of this strange world called Ireland, where Daddy comes from - but they have never been. Strange indeed, it is - a land of legends, of leprechauns, mythic Kings and otherworldly beings. It must, to them, seem rather an odd enchanting place, besides the prosaic, predictable Singapore they know so well.

Syahidah explained the Blarney Stone, to Fintan and Tiarnan, with her round amazed eyes: "Anyone who kisses the Blarney Stone is given a special gift: they can talk and talk and talk and never stop talking. They always have something to say."

Fintan looked very serious then and turned to his mummy: "Did Tiarnan kiss the Blarney Stone?"

She would have laughed, but she is too kind to do so. So she just allowed herself a little smile.

"No, he hasn't". Yet, she understood why it might seem so for, of all the little Cawleys in the world, Tiarnan has more talk in him than all the rest put together. His tongue is supercharged with an ever flowing river of words that needs only one thing to set it flowing: that he be awake. Tiarnan talks about everything and anything, often making interesting observations or asking apt questions - or sometimes saying something quite bizarre. That he talks so much is one of the first things strangers remark about him. Yet, he does not talk in an annoying, intrusive way - he talks in a charming, enchanting way. There is something about him, that makes even the most jaded of listeners, want to pause to listen, and find out just what is going through his little head.

Perhaps, I wonder, Tiarnan might, one day, do something that requires ever flowing words. He might be a writer, or an actor, or a politician. I would be most unsurprised if he ends up doing something that requires verbal fluency of a high degree - for that is what he is already showing.

Of course, there is a deeper meaning to Tiarnan's talk. He talks because he thinks. He only speaks so much, because he has so much to say. So, in that sense, it could presage anything. He might not end up as a writer, an actor or a politician - but I am sure he will end up in something that requires fluency of thought for, after all, it is fluency of thought that leads to fluency of speech.

It is too early to tell, of course, what Tiarnan might be. Yet, it is good that my sons present such contrasts. I would say that Tiarnan speaks the most and Ainan the least. However, that is only conditionally true. Ainan can speak superabundantly, when someone engages him in conversation, though he often speaks so as to refute what is being said, to point out its logical flaws - yet, speak he does. Most of the time, though, he is quieter than the others, more involved in his own thought, than in the need to convey it to others. Fintan is somewhere in between. Together, they present quite a spectrum of talkativeness, yet all are brothers. As long-term readers will know, they are different in other ways, too. That variety, of course, provides an ever stimulating environment to their parents. In our household, there seems to be one of just about every kind of person.

One day, I shall bring my family to Ireland. Perhaps, then, we could visit the Blarney Stone - the one Tiarnan does not need to kiss. In fact, of all my sons, I would prevent him from doing so! Carry on talking, Tiarnan!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

The Irish solution to financial meltdown.

When it comes time to write the history books of this financial chaos the world now finds itself in, I believe a turning point will be noted in the Irish response to the crisis. Indeed, it may come to be known as the Irish solution, in time to come.

As many of you will know, the Republic of Ireland - or at least its government - was the first country in the world to guarantee the bank deposits of its homegrown Irish banks. This was a masterful move - and will be seen (and is already by many) as a wise move. You see, by guaranteeing the banks, Ireland created the world's safest haven for depositors - thus, if no other country did the same, money would fly to Ireland, in a jiffy, from all over the world. The Irish banks would be overladen with newly won cash. Of course, Ireland knew this - and knew, therefore, that the risk of having to pick up what was calculated to be a potential 9 trillion dollar bill, was remote. Irish banks were safe because Ireland said they were safe.

I believe that the Republic of Ireland knew that the rest of the world would be forced to follow suit. The Irish government must have been aware that other nations could not stand by and do nothing in response. Thus, Ireland's unilateral move has forced the hands of governments around the world to do what they should already have been doing: guaranteeing their banks, so that depositors would not withdraw all their funds and deplete the banks of capital, killing them in the process. So, Germany and Greece followed, in quick succession - and now Australia, too, has said that it will "guarantee ALL deposits for three years".

Ireland's financial wisdom may just have saved the world from an even greater catastrophe than would otherwise have befallen it. Islands of surety in the chaos are being created all over the world, as other governments come out with guarantees of their banks - and all because of the Irish.

Of course, some governments will resist backing their banks in this way. Such governments will, I think, sit by and watch their banks shrivel up and die as the deposits are moved to banks in territories that do offer such guarantees. In time, all governments will be moved to offer some form of guarantee: it is the only way to bring some confidence back into the financial system.

It is interesting to see that it was a small nation like Ireland that led the way in this. It was not the United States of America - which hereafter shall forever be known as the CAUSE of this global financial mess. The USA spent its time arguing over whether it was socialist/communistic to bail out the banks - letting the chaos grow, as they did so. Ideologies such as capitalism/socialism really, really, really don't matter when the entire financial system is collapsing around the world: what must be done, must be done, irrespective of what people might call it. It rather amazes me that they would even consider ideologies at this point.

The small nation of Ireland will be thanked, by history, for its unilateral initiative, in stepping up to do what must be done to ensure that the financial chaos we have now entered, globally, does not endure a moment longer than it has to.

Perhaps, people everywhere, should go out and drink a pint of Guinness, in salute to the Emerald Isle, land of leprechauns, pots of gold and wise finance ministers.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Tiarnan's ancestral instinct

A musical compilation CD was playing today, in the background while my wife, Tiarnan and myself were in the room. The songs came from different parts of the world and different traditions. Tiarnan listened as he played.

Suddenly, an Irish tune came on. I am unsure whether Tiarnan (who is half-Irish but has never been to Ireland), had ever heard any Irish music - certainly he has never heard it in my presence before. His reaction was electric. He stopped what he was doing at once and started jumping about, relatively rhythmically. It was as if he was trying to invent the jig, in response to the sound of one.

Throughout the song, he danced his "jig" which, since he had never seen a jig, was not actually one, but definitely the intent to dance was there. His excitement was beautiful to witness. His smile was broad, his movements fast and energized. Truly, the Irish music seemed to have him under its spell.

He danced on until the very last note - and then he stopped. Once the Irish tune ceased, so did his dancing - for the song that followed was not from Ireland. Sweetly, he stood still and clapped the recorded musicians, once they fell silent, applauding their efforts.

This made me wonder about why he danced to such music. It was as if there was in him some ancestral instinct, some recognition of where he had come from and who he was. At least, so the timing of his actions tell. It could, of course, just be that the Irish dance music is naturally energizing and exciting and he picked up on that. However, he did not dance to any non-Irish tune. Furthermore, it is rather poetic to think that he might instinctively recognize his origins in the music - that it might call to something deep within him. Anyone who had seen the way he had danced to it, would wonder too at his connection to the music and the land of Ireland.

It looks like I will have to play him some more Irish dance music. I think we have ourselves a little leprachaun in the house - or half of one, anyway.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)