Biographies A-Z

This is a co-subject for the entry on Devereux, Nicholas. View the original entry.

This is a co-subject for the entry on Devereux, Richard. View the original entry.

Devereux, Nicholas (1791–1855), merchant, banker, and philanthropist, was born 7 June 1791 in The Leap near Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, youngest child of Thomas Devereux and Catherine Devereux (née Corish). Family tradition claims that the Norman Devereux family was descended from…

Devereux, Richard (1795–1883), merchant, shipowner, and philanthropist, was born 13 June 1795 in Wexford, eldest son among four sons of Richard Devereux of Wexford, corn merchant and maltster, and his wife Christine (née Herron), daughter of a prosperous Wexford shipowner and…

This is a co-subject for the entry on Devereux, Richard. View the original entry.

Devereux, Robert (1565–1601), 2nd earl of Essex , royal favourite, and lord lieutenant of Ireland, was born 10 November 1565, eldest son of Walter Devereux (qv), 1st earl of Essex, and his wife Lettice (Laetitia) (d. 1634), daughter of…

Devereux, Walter (1539–76), 1st earl of Essex , colonist in Ireland, was born 16 September 1539 at Carmarthen castle, Wales, elder son and heir of Sir Richard Devereux and Dorothy, daughter of George Hastings, earl of Huntingdon. On the death of his grandfather, Walter, on 27…

Devine, William (1887–1959), priest and military chaplain, was born 5 October 1887 at Castlederg, Co. Tyrone, son of George Devine, draper, and Catherine Devine (née McGlinchy). Educated at St Columb's College, Derry, and St Patrick's College, Maynooth, he was ordained for the diocese…

Devlin, Anne (1781–1851), nationalist and heroine, was born at Cronebeg, near Aughrim, Co. Wicklow, the second of four daughters and three sons of Bryan Devlin and his wife Winifred (née Byrne), who were farmers. When Anne was a child the family moved to a substantial dairy farm at…

Devlin, Denis (1908–59), diplomat and poet, was born 15 April 1908 in Greenock, Scotland, oldest of nine children of…

Devlin, Edith Florence Newman (1926–2012), lecturer in English, was born on 21 September 1926, in Swords, Co. Dublin, the youngest among three sons and two daughters of Hugh Gaw and Eva Gaw (née Newman). Her mother was a teacher in a Church of Ireland primary school, and her father, who…

Devlin, Joseph (1871–1934), nationalist leader, was born 13 February 1871 at Hamill Street, Belfast, fourth son of Charles Devlin, car driver, and Elizabeth Devlin (née King), both recent migrants from the Lough Neagh area of east Co. Tyrone. Educated to elementary level from the age of…

Devlin, Joseph Francis (‘Frank’) (1900–88), badminton player, was born 19 January 1900 at 11 Wellington Place, Dublin, to Joseph Edmund Devlin, government official, and Edith Devlin (née Jeneken). He was the only child in a mixed-denomination marriage and as a result there were…

Devlin, Liam (1877–1964), revolutionary, publican and industrialist, was born William Devlin on 18 June 1877 at 59 Waterloo Street, Derry city, the son of Denis Devlin, variously a labourer, clothier and potato dealer, and Ellen Devlin (née McLaughlin). Their first-born child, William,…

Devlin, Paddy (1925–99), politician and trade unionist, was born 8 March 1925 at 46 Lady St. in the Falls Road area of Belfast, eldest child among four daughters and three sons of Patrick Devlin, ex-serviceman and later flour-mill worker, and his wife Anna, of Belfast, daughter of…

Devlin, Patrick James (‘Celt’) (1877–1941), GAA journalist, was born 21 January 1877 in McCrumms Court, Co. Armagh, the son of Patrick Devlin, an RIC constable, and his wife, Eliza Jane, née McGoldrick. When he was aged nine his…

Devoy, John (1842–1928), journalist and Fenian, was born 3 September 1842 at Kill, Co. Kildare, the third of eight children of William Devoy, smallholder and building contractor, and his wife Elizabeth (née Dunne). In 1848 the family moved to Dublin for economic reasons precipitated by…

de Wichfeld, Monica Emily (1894–1945), Danish resistance heroine, was born 12 July 1894 in London, only daughter and eldest of four children of John George Massy-Beresford (1856–1923), landowner, and Alice Elizabeth Massy-Beresford (née Mulholland; 1869–1948), daughter of the 1st…

Dhammaloka (Carroll, Laurence) (b. c.1856), Buddhist monk in Burma (Myanmar), was probably born in 1856 in south Co. Dublin, son of a grocer in Booterstown. All that is known of his life prior to his emergence as a public figure in colonial Burma in 1900 derives from his own…

Diamond, Charles (1858–1934), newspaperman and politician, was born 17 November 1858 in Gortade parish, Maghera, Co. Londonderry, third among six children of a farmer and his wife (née O'Neill); his parents’ other names are not known. Allegedly there were ‘local leaders not of the…

Diamond, Harry (1908–96), politician, was born 10 May 1908 at 33 Springfield Road, west Belfast, and baptised Henry Diamond, the son of Patrick Diamond, bootmaker, and his wife, Mary (née Henry). He was educated at St Paul's national school, off the Falls Road, and then joined his…

This is a co-subject for the entry on O'Connor Faly (Ó Conchobair Failge), Muircheartach Óg. View the original entry.

Diarmait (late 6th cent.), founder and first abbot of Inis Clothrann (Inchcleraun on Lough Ree, Co. Longford), and saint in the Irish tradition, was – according to the medieval pedigree assigned to him – son of Lugna son of Lugaid, who was attached to the Connacht dynasty of Uí…

Diarmait (d. 825), grandson of Áed Rón, was founder and first abbot of Dísert Diarmata, a prominent member of the Céli Dé church reform movement, and a saint in the Irish tradition. His father, Fergal, was a relatively undistinguished member of the east Ulster Dál Fiatach…

Diarmait (d. 852), abbot of Armagh, was grandson of one Tigernán. He contested the abbacy with Forannán (qv) (d. 852) son of Murgal, after the death in 834 of Abbot Éogan Mainistrech (qv). In…