Born Carlo Bianconi in Costa Masnaga

Costa Masnaga

Costa Masnaga is a comune in the Province of Lecco in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 35 km northeast of Milan and about 13 km southwest of Lecco....

 (Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

) on September 24, 1786, he moved from an area poised to fall to Napoleon

Italian Republic (Napoleonic)

The Italian Republic was a short-lived republic located in Northern Italy. It was a vassal state of the First French Republic of Napoleon.-The republic:...

 and travelled to Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 in 1802, via England, just four years after the 1798 rebellion

Irish Rebellion of 1798

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...

. At the time, British fear of continental invasion resulted in an acute sense of insecurity and additional restrictions on the admission of foreigners. He eventually became famous for his innovations in transport and was twice mayor of Clonmel

Clonmel

Clonmel is the county town of South Tipperary in Ireland. It is the largest town in the county. While the borough had a population of 15,482 in 2006, another 17,008 people were in the rural hinterland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian army which sacked both...

, in County Tipperary

County Tipperary

County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...

.
He was the founder of public transportation in Ireland, at a time preceding railways.