Today we remember - Submarine Inventor John Paul Holland. John Paul Holland, the inventor of the first practical submarine is born in Co. Clare. He emigrated to the US in 1873. Holland’s first submarine submission was rejected by the Navy Secretary as “a fantastic scheme of a civilian landsman.” The navy eventually relented and purchased it’s first submarine in 1900 for $150,000. John Holland also had a strong interest in aviation writing a paper in 1891 titled 'The Practicality of Manned Flight'. He is buried in Totowa, New Jersey.