The trouble is - Pearse never claimed to be the first - neither did the wrights !
The wrights just patented their aircraft/control system.
Pearse, the would-be aviator, wrote two letters to local newspapers, in 1915
and 1928. He described what happened when he attempted to fly his plane: “At the trials it would start to rise off the ground when a speed of twenty
miles an hour was attained. This speed was not sufficient to work the rudders,
so, on account of its huge size and low speed, it was uncontrollable, and would
spin round broadside directly after it left the ground. So I never flew with
my first experimental plane, but no-one else did with their first for that matter”.
In the 1915 letter, Pearse wrote: “The honor of inventing the aeroplane
cannot be assigned wholly to one man; like most other inventions, it is the
product of many minds. After all, there is nothing that succeeds like success,
and for this reason pre-eminence will undoubtedly be given to the Wright brothers,
of America, when the history of the aeroplane is written, as they were actually
the first to make successful flights with a motor-driven aeroplane.”