As an Irish person from Cork, I'm a bit embarrassed I've never heard of him until now.
That said we're probably not great at acknowledging historical figures in the field. George Boole's house is three minutes' walk from my house and it's basically derelict (and was literally falling down at one point). It would be a wonderful building for a museum of his life and achievements.
To be fair, figures like Boole and Hamilton are very much celebrated within Irish academia. And it's not a new thing. I attended a conference on the legacy of Boole in 1995: https://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/ims/bull33/bull33_3-3.pdf
Ludgate is a more marginal case because his invention didn't come to fruition. There is a bit of a sense in which he is being celebrated/hyped in a silly superficial ("collectively narcissistic") way intended to bolster self-esteem for Irish technical people. https://ingeniousireland.ie/2012/10/1909-a-novel-irish-compu...
I heard of him as Computer Science in TCD awards - or used to award - a prize for the best 4th year project called the Ludgate prize.
The problem is that he left no written body of work. I recall reading of a researcher who contacted his surviving relatives to enquire about any notes or materials he had left after his death but nothing had been preserved - I guess as his work was viewed as completely obscure at the time and he had achieved little recognition for it during his life. As far as I know what little we know of his proposed machine involves guesswork from very little material.
I've never heard of him until I took a trip to Dublin, and happened to stroll around random neighborhoods until I saw a plaque on a house celebrating his achievement!
Percy Ludgate - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37533487 - Sept 2023 (17 comments)