Contenders for costliest mistake ever made by an Irish person

NEWTON'S OPTIC:WHAT IS the costliest mistake ever made by an Irish person? The Irish Timestakes a look at some of the contenders.

In 1933, Éamon de Valera stopped land annuity payments to Britain, provoking a tit-for tat rise in import duties. Result: foreign trade down 90 per cent for seven years. Comparable loss today: €470 billion.

In 1999, student Ian Clarke of Dundalk created the first software for peer-to-peer file sharing and made it freely available. Result: mounting chaos in the music, film and television industries as their content appeared online, people stopped paying for it and copyright became meaningless. Current cost: €60 billion a year in the EU, €75 billion a year in the US and €100 billion a year in lost taxes across the G20.

In 1865, Cork-born Eliza Lynch, mistress of Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano, persuaded him to launch simultaneous wars against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Result: total defeat for Paraguay, complete economic collapse, death of over half the population and permanent loss of one-third of its territory. Approximate cost at today’s prices: €220 billion.

In 1169, Dermot MacMurrough of Leinster invited the Normans into Ireland. Result: loss of sovereignty. The cost of this could be valued, but not in euro.

In 1815, at the Congress of Vienna, Lord Castlereagh of Co Down divided Polish lands between Germany and Russia. Result: no world wars in the 19th century but two world wars in the 20th century. Overall cost: hard to say, but 19th-century wars would have been cheaper.

In 1995, Irish diplomat Peter Sutherland changed the name of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to the much catchier World Trade Organisation, earning himself headlines as “the father of globalisation”. Result: an obscure technical process caught the attention of every paranoid nutter. Cost: holding up a 1 per cent tariff cut by one year blocks €110 billion of trade.

In 1969, Gerry Adams of West Belfast took exception to certain local government arrangements. Cost over the next 30 years: €300 billion.

In 1826, Aeneas Coffey of Dublin perfected the distillation process, delivering 95 per cent pure alcohol from grain. Current worldwide cost of alcohol abuse: 4 per cent of all deaths and €400 billion a year (minus profits from alcohol).

In 1938, Harry Ferguson of Dromara made a handshake agreement with Henry Ford to produce tractors in America. Ford’s grandson reneged on the deal but continued using Ferguson’s designs. By the time the legal row was resolved, most of the patents had expired. Result: in barely a decade, Ferguson’s firm lost control of the global tractor market. Current annual size of that market: €40 billion.

In 1999, Dublin technology firm Aldiscon, which invented the mobile phone text message, was sold to a British company for £51 million. Its Belfast division, which invented mobile phone internet connectivity, was sold the same year to a US firm for £150 million. Annual global revenue from both technologies today: €370 billion.

In 1993, Louis Walsh of Co Mayo created an Irish version of Take That. Result: Boyzone, Westlife and Jedward. Cost: all you can’t put a price on.