Literature

Displaying 1 - 25 of 1049 results on page 1 of 42

Abraham, James Johnston

Abraham, James Johnston (1876–1963), surgeon and writer, was born 16 August 1876 in Kingsgate St., Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, son of William Abraham (1849–1933) of Co. Fermanagh, tea merchant, general supplier, JP, and methodist circuit…

Addison, Joseph

Addison, Joseph (1672–1719), writer and politician, was born 1 May 1672 at Milston, near Amesbury, Wiltshire, England, eldest son of Lancelot Addison (1632–1703), vicar of Milston and chaplain to Charles II and James II (qv), and his…

Airbertach

Airbertach (d. 1016), son of Cos Dobráin, was at the time of his death airchinnech or superior of the monastery of Ros Ailithir (Ross Carbery, Co. Cork). The only other reference to him in historical sources, an entry in the Annals of Inisfallen, states that in the year 990 Ros…

Alcock, Deborah

Alcock, Deborah (1835–1913), author, was born in June 1835 in Waterford, second daughter of John Alcock, archdeacon of Waterford, and his wife Jane Innes. Her father's brother was Benjamin Alcock (qv). Her mother died when she was three…

Alexander, Eleanor Jane (Nell)

This is a co-subject for the entry on Alexander, Cecil Frances. View the original entry.

Allingham, William

Allingham, William (1824–89), poet and customs official, was born 19 March 1824 in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, eldest of five children of William Allingham, merchant and bank manager, and Elizabeth Allingham (née Crawford). A brother died in infancy; his mother died when Allingham…

Altman, Albert Liebes Lascar

Altman, Albert Liebes Lascar (c.1853–1903), businessman and nationalist politician, was born c.1853 in Prussian Poland, the son of Moritz Altman (born Shagra Moshe ben Aharon) and his wife Deborah (born Devorah bat Chaim Liebes). He was the eldest of four surviving…

Amory, Thomas

Amory, Thomas (1691?–1788), writer, was said to be a son of Counsellor (Thomas?) Amory, secretary for the forfeited estates after the Williamite wars, who had acquired large estates in Co. Clare. Counsellor Amory was possibly the son of a Thomas Amory, victualler to the navy, who…

Ancketill (Anketell), Henry

Ancketill (Anketell), Henry (1855–1930), writer, journalist and politician, was born 4 May 1855 in Ancketill's Grove, Co. Monaghan, the fourth son of Major Matthew John Anketell, deputy lieutenant and JP, and his wife, Catherine Frances…

Anster, John Martin

Anster, John Martin (1793–1867), poet, translator of Goethe's Faust, and regius professor of civil law in Dublin University, was born 21 October 1793 in Charleville, Cork, son of John Anster, distiller, and Mary Ann Anster (née Hiffernan). The family was catholic, and…

Arbuckle, James

Arbuckle, James (d. 1742), poet and essayist, came from Belfast. His parentage is unknown, but he may have been a nephew of the merchant James Arbuckle (d. March 1736), who was a lay elder in the Second Presbyterian congregation. His date of birth cannot be reliably determined,…

Archdeacon, Matthew

Archdeacon, Matthew (1798–1853), writer and schoolmaster, was born 17 March 1798 in Castlebar, Co. Mayo. He was probably the son of G. Archdeacon, recorded in 1810 as running a 'mathematical and mercantile school' in Castlebar, since from 1825 Matthew Archdeacon himself ran a '…

Archer, Patrick

Archer, Patrick (1866–1949), writer and Gaelic League activist, was born 19 December 1866 in Oldtown, Co. Dublin, the son of Patrick Archer, a shoemaker, and his wife, Jane Donoghue, a teacher. Having secured a postion in the civil service in 1891, he was appointed to the customs and…

Arden, John

Arden, John (1930–2012), playwright and novelist, was born on 26 October 1930 in Barnsley, Yorkshire, to Charles Arden, a manager in a glass manufacturer, and Annie (‘Nancy’) Elizabeth Arden (née Layland), a primary school teacher. He was educated at the local primary school, Terringham…

Armstrong, Edmund John

Armstrong, Edmund John (1841–65), poet, was born 23 July 1841 in Mornington House, Upper Merrion St., Dublin, the second of three sons of Edmund John Armstrong, a clerk in the ecclesiastical commission, and his wife Jane, daughter of the Rev. Henry Savage (d. 1815) of Glastry, Co…

Armstrong, George Francis Savage

This is a co-subject for the entry on Armstrong, Edmund John. View the original entry.

Arnold, Thomas

Arnold, Thomas (1823–1900), literary scholar and teacher, was born at Laleham, Middlesex, on 30 November 1823, the third child and second son of Dr Thomas Arnold (1795–1842), later famous as the headmaster of Rugby School, and his wife, Mary, née Penrose (1791–1873). Throughout his life…

Ashe, Thomas

Ashe, Thomas (1770–1835), novelist and travel writer, was born 15 July 1770 in Glasnevin, Co. Dublin, third son among eleven children of Jonathan Ashe, soldier, and Margaret Ashe (née Hickman), heiress to estates in Co. Clare. According to his own account, he spent his early life at…

Ashton (Aston), Robert

Ashton (Aston), Robert (fl. 1725–8), poet, of whom little is known, seems to have been a shoemaker in Dublin. He published (1725) a congratulatory poem to Jonathan Swift (qv) and a Satyr on journeymen taylors; and in…

Atkinson, Joseph

Atkinson, Joseph (c.1743–1818), army officer, poet, and dramatist, was born in Dublin and served in the English army, reaching the rank of captain. He wrote a comedy and two comic operas, all of which were produced in Dublin. His first play, ‘The mutual deception’,…

Babington, Anthony Patrick

Babington, Anthony Patrick (1920–2004), judge, writer, and disability advocate, was born at 4 Mount Verdon Terrace, Cork city, on 4 April 1920, the youngest of two sons and two daughters of Oscar John Gilmore Babington (1879–1930), engineer and army officer, and his wife Annie Honor…

Bailey, William Frederick

Bailey, William Frederick (1857–1917), lawyer, public servant and littérateur, was born 9 February 1857 at Castletown Conyers, Co. Limerick, eldest of two sons and three daughters of Dr William Bailey, retired from the Royal Navy, and his wife Annie (née Harding) from Cherry Hill,…

Bairéad, Riocard (Barrett, Dick)

Bairéad, Riocard (Barrett, Dick) (d. 1819), poet in Irish, was born between 1735 and 1740 in Barrack, Belmullet, Co. Mayo, on the Erris peninsula. He appears to have remained in the district for his entire life, moving only to Carne, a neighbouring parish, possibly c.1790. This…

Bairéad, Tomás

Bairéad, Tomás (1893–1973), short-story writer and journalist, was born 7 July 1893 in Baile Dóite, Moycullen, Co. Galway, one of two sons and two daughters of Michael Barrett, farmer, and Mary (Mary Frank) Barrett (née McDonough), both of Moycullen, and received his only formal…

Balfour, Mary E.

Balfour, Mary E. (fl. 1789–1810), poet, was born on 24 January; one source gives the year as 1755. However, if – as seems likely – she was the eldest daughter of John Balfour (who seems to have been a doctor in Derry city before becoming a clergyman in 1789, and who…