Biographies A-Z

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z

Loftus, Adam

Loftus, Adam (1533/4–1605), Church of Ireland archbishop of Armagh and of Dublin, and lord chancellor of Ireland, was the second son of Edward Loftus of Swineside, in the parish of Coverham, Yorkshire, England; details of his mother are not known. Loftus's education and early…

Loftus, Adam

Loftus, Adam (1568?–1643), 1st Viscount Loftus of Ely, lord chancellor of Ireland, was the second, but eldest surviving, son of Robert Loftus of Swineside in the parish of Coverham, Yorkshire. Adam matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating BA…

Loftus, Dudley

Loftus, Dudley (1618–95), Oriental scholar and jurist, was born at Rathfarnham castle, Co. Dublin, a son of Sir Adam Loftus, vice-treasurer of Ireland, and his wife Jane, daughter of Walter Vaughan of Golden Grove, Carmarthenshire, Wales. He received his

Loftus, Sean Daniel ('Dublin Bay')

Loftus, Sean Daniel ('Dublin Bay') (1927–2010), environmentalist and political activist, was born in Dublin on 26 November 1927, eldest of seven children (four sons and three daughters) of J. J. Loftus, medical doctor, and his wife Margaret, former captain of the Irish hockey team. The…

Logan, James

Logan, James (1674–1751), scientist and public servant in America, was born 20 October 1674 at Lurgan, Co. Armagh, son of Patrick Logan, a schoolmaster and former Church of Scotland clergyman who became a quaker, and his wife, Isabel Logan (née Hume) – both had moved to Ireland from…

Logan, Joseph

Logan, Joseph (1914–1999), physician and medical administrator, was born 15 December 1914 at Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, son of John Logan, victualler, and Mary Logan (née Logan). His brother was the author Dr Patrick Logan. Educated first at St Mary's College, Dundalk, he then…

Logan, Michael J. (Ó Lócháin, Micheál)

Logan, Michael J. (Ó Lócháin, Micheál) (1836–99), editor, publisher, and ‘father of the Gaelic language movement’ in America (Ford, 1899), was born 29 September 1836 at Currach Doire (Curraghderry), Baile an Mhuilinn (Milltown), near Tuam, Co. Galway, son of Patrick Logan, a small…

Logier, Frederick

Logier, Frederick (1801–67), organist, teacher, and composer, was born 25 April 1801 in the town of Cavan, the second child of the German pedagogue and inventor Johann Bernhard Logier (qv) and his first wife, Elizabeth Willman…

Logier, Johann Bernhard

Logier, Johann Bernhard (1777–1846), pedagogue, composer, arranger, inventor, concert promoter, and music publisher and seller, was born 9 February 1777 in Kassel, Germany, the son of Johann Jacob Logier (1736–84), an organist and violinist, and Christina Elizabeth Gotze (1742–87…

Logue, Michael

Logue, Michael (1840–1924), catholic archbishop of Armagh and cardinal, was born 1 October 1840 at Carrigart, Co. Donegal, the second in a family of six children of Michael Logue, an innkeeper, and Catherine Logue (née Durnan). Educated initially by a hedge-master in Carrigart,…

Loingsech

Loingsech (d. 704), son of Óengus and king of Tara, belonged to the Uí Néill dynasty of Cenél Conaill. He is stated to have been the only son of Óengus son of Domnall (qv) son of Áed (qv), but his mother's name…

Lomasney, William Francis Mackey

Lomasney, William Francis Mackey (1841–84), Fenian, was born in Cincinnati (Ohio), of Irish parents, recently emigrated from Co. Cork. His paternal great-grandfather had been killed in the 1798 rebellion and his father joined the American Fenian Brotherhood in the late 1850s. It is…

Lombard, James Fitzgerald

Lombard, James Fitzgerald (1817–1901), land developer and businessman, was born in Gortatlea, Co. Kerry, second son among nine children of Roger Lombard, civil servant, from Gortatlea and Cork city, and his wife Jane, daughter of James Fitzgerald of Moviddy, Co. Cork. Little is…

Lombard, Peter

Lombard, Peter (c.1554–1625), professor at the university of Louvain, theologian, and catholic archbishop of Armagh, was born in Waterford, probably in 1554 (although in 1623 he estimated his own age to be about 65). He came from an important mercantile family, deeply…

Longfield, Cynthia Evelyn

Longfield, Cynthia Evelyn (1896–1991), entomologist and traveller, was born 16 August 1896 at 20 Pont St., Belgravia, London, youngest of three daughters of Lt-col. Mountifort John Courtenay Longfield and his wife Alice Elizabeth (née Mason) of Castle Mary, Cloyne, Co. Cork, the…

Longfield, Mountifort

Longfield, Mountifort (1802–84), economist and lawyer, was second son of the Rev. Mountifort Longfield (d. 1850), JP and vicar of Desert Serges, Co. Cork, of the Anglo-Irish Longfield family of Longueville, near Mallow, Co. Cork, and his…

Long, John

Long, John (d. 1589), Church of Ireland archbishop of Armagh, was born in London c.1547–8 and educated at Eton. He wrote four epigrams in Latin that were presented, along with other verses from Eton scholars, to Queen Elizabeth at Windsor castle in 1563. He was admitted…

Long, John St John

Long, John St John (1798–1834), painter and quack physician, was born at Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, second son of John Long, basket-maker, and Anne Long (née St John). There is evidence to suggest that his father had originally been called O'Driscoll, and had assumed the surname…

Long, Joseph John

Long, Joseph John (fl. 1891–1925), medical missionary, was the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman. After considering a missionary career overseas, in 1891 Long began work at the Dublin Medical Mission; this was an evangelical body which used the offer of free medical…

Long, Philip

Long, Philip (1772?–1814), insurgent, was born in Waterford into a catholic family. Little is known of his background; he may have lived in Spain (1789–95). Long played a prominent strategic role in the conspiracy that led to the failed insurrection of…

Longsword (Longespée), Stephen

Longsword (Longespée), Stephen (d. 1260), justiciar of Ireland, was the youngest son of William Longsword, 3rd earl of Salisbury, illegitimate son of Henry II (qv), and commander of John's forces in Ireland in 1210, and his wife, Ela. It was…

Long, Walter Hume

Long, Walter Hume (1854–1924), 1st Viscount Long, politician, was born 13 July 1854 at Bath, Somerset. He was the eldest of five sons and five daughters of Richard Penruddocke Long (1825–75), Wiltshire landowner and conservative MP, and his wife Charlotte Anna (née Hume; d. 1899) who…

Long, William Joseph

Long, William Joseph (1922–2008), politician and fisherman, was born 23 April 1922 in Stockton-on-Tees, England, the son of William Long and his wife Frederica (née Walker). He received his secondary education in Friends' School, Great Ayton (North Yorkshire), an agriculturally-oriented…

Lonsdale, Kathleen

Lonsdale, Kathleen (1903–71), X-ray crystallographer and pacifist, was born 28 January 1903 in Charlotte House, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, youngest among ten children of Henry Frederick Yardley (d. 1923), an English-born former soldier and postmaster of Newbridge, and his wife Jessie…

Lord, Cyril

Lord, Cyril (1911–84), textile and carpet manufacturer, was born 12 July 1911 in Manchester, England, son of Richard Lund Lord, of Manchester, Co-operative Society stores clerk and later retail manager, and Kate Lord (née Hackney). Educated at the Central School Manchester and the…