Irish gave us more than Guinness

Patricks' Day - no, that's not a typo - nearly rivals Christmas in our clan. Green and gold adorn the house. Dinner is not only corned beef stewed in Irish stout, but shepherd's pie and shamrock cookies. We wear green top hats. No really.

Yet I feel sad because the American love affair with all things Irish is fraught with smashed stereotype. Always, always the drink. Irish joke? Show me one minus imagery of a drunken Gael; they're few and far between.

Irish contributions are greater than Guinness and the first distiller. Consider the long list of literary talents: Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw ... Our emerald brethren boast some very sober inventions too.

* Boyle's Law. Chemist Robert Boyle didn't stop with ratios of gas pressure and volume; he discovered methanol - key to everyday items such as plastic bottles, car components, and the fleece jacket in your closet.

* Color photography and fighting cancer. Ireland's prolific John Joly invented the meldometer which measures mineral melting points, the steam calorimeter which measures heat, the photometer for light intensity (plus color photos from a single plate), and the use of radiation to treat cancer.

* Calls and Kelvin. Kelvin Thomson established the first transatlantic telegraph cable; this earned him knighthood. His thermodynamics work led to the "Kelvin Scale" which measures temperature.

* Cure for leprosy.Vincent Barry was researching tuberculosis when he discovered compound B663, curing 15 million of leprosy.

* Boats and "battle buggies." John Holland invented an underwater boat - the first submarine launched in 1881 called Fenian Ram (name of an Irish militia). While others were later credited with the final versions, an early armored vehicle was commissioned by Churchill and designed in Dublin in 1911.

* Ejector seats and whirly birds. Adopted by the Royal Air Force, the first aircraft ejector seat was designed by Irishman Sir James Martin. The first helicopter was by Irish-born Louis Brennan (who like many moved to Australia after the famine). Brennan also invented a guided torpedo and a monorail.

"An Irishman's heart is nothing but his imagination." - George Bernard Shaw

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who returns to Ireland in her fantasies. Sholehjo@hotmail.com