Literature

Chetwood, William Rufus (d. 1766), prompter, publisher, and author, was most probably born in England. Little is known of his early life, but his own accounts, and the fact that he wrote several seafaring adventures, indicate that he had travelled around the world as a young man,…

Chichester, Frederick Richard (1827–53), earl of Belfast and littérateur, was born 25 November 1827, second son of George Hamilton Chichester, 3rd marquess of Donegall, and his wife Harriet, daughter of Richard Butler (qv), 1st earl of…

Childers, (Robert) Erskine (1870–1922), British civil servant, author, and Sinn Féin propagandist, was born 25 June 1870 in London, second son among five children of Robert Caesar Childers, private secretary to the governor of Ceylon and scholar of Buddhism, and Anna Henrietta Childers…

Clancy, Michael (c.1704–1776), writer, was born in Co. Clare, son of Daniel Clancy, a soldier (or possibly a doctor) and a man of letters. His life, as recounted in his Memoirs (an incomplete and somewhat fanciful account), is dedicated to the earl of Kildare. He…

Clarke, Austin (1896–1974), poet, novelist, and verse dramatist, was born 9 May 1896 at 83 Manor Street, Dublin, the only surviving boy among twelve children, of which three girls also survived. His father, Augustine Clarke (d. 2 November 1918), an official in Dublin corporation, became…

Clarke (McFall), Frances Bellenden (Sarah Grand) (1854–1943), novelist and feminist, was born 10 June 1854 at Donaghadee, Co. Down, where her father, Edward Bellenden Clarke, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was stationed in the coastguard. Her mother was Margaret (née Bell Sherwood…

Clark, Wallace (1926–2011), yachtsman, writer and businessman, was born in Upperlands, Co. Derry, on 20 November 1926, one of three children, two boys and a girl, of Harry Francis Clark, of Rockwood in Upperlands, and his wife Sybil Emily (née Stuart). His father was a director and…

Clayton, Eleanor (‘Ellen’) Creathorne (1834–1900), illustrator and writer, was born 15 February 1834 in Gloucester Terrace, Dublin, the eldest child and only daughter of Benjamin Clayton III (1809–83), a member of a long-established family of Dublin engravers, and his wife Mary (née…

Cleeve, Brian Talbot (1921–2003), writer and broadcaster, was born 22 November 1921 in Thorpe Bay, Essex, England, second of three sons of Charles Edward Cleeve (1891–1966), businessman, and the first of his four wives, Josephine (née Talbot) (d. 1924), daughter of an Essex estate…

Clerke, Ellen Mary (1840–1906), journalist and writer, was born 26 September 1840 in Skibbereen, Co. Cork, elder daughter among three children of John William Clerke (1814–90), manager of the Provincial Bank, and his wife Catherine Mary, sister of lawyer…

Clery, Arthur Edward (1879–1932), nationalist and author, was the only child of Art Ua Cléirigh, lawyer and amateur historian, and his wife Catherine Clery (née Moylan). During his boyhood his family suffered a crisis: his father went to the Indian bar to recoup family finances, his…

Clery, William Edward (c.1861–1931), writer and trade unionist, was born in Ireland in 1861 or 1862, son of John and Helen Clery. In 1877 he emigrated with his parents to London, penniless, and in 1878 entered the civil service, becoming a second-class inland sorter at the…

Clifford, Sigerson (1913–85), author, was born Edward Bernard Clifford on 8 May 1913, at Dean St., Cork, son of Michael Clifford, tailor, and Mary Anne Clifford (née Sigerson), both of Caherciveen, Co. Kerry. The family returned to Caherciveen when he was two, and he was educated at…

Clive (Raftor), Catherine (Kitty) (1711–85), comic actress, singer, and writer, was probably born in London on 5 November 1711. Her father, William Raftor or Rafter, was a Kilkenny-born lawyer, who lost his claim on a large estate following his support of…

Cochrane, Ian (1941–2004), writer, was born 7 November 1941 in a two‑room cottage at Moylarg, Dromona (near Cullybackey), Co. Antrim. He was the third of five children of Tom and Sadie Cochrane and had three brothers and a sister. 'We lived in a little house right out in the country,…

Cockburn, Patricia Evangeline Anne (1914–89), author and artist, was born 17 March 1914 at Derry House, Rosscarbery, Co. Cork, youngest among six children of Maj. John Bernard Arbuthnot , and his wife Olive, daughter of Sir Henry…

Code, Henry Brereton (c.1770–1838), journalist, dramatist, and government agent (whose real name appears to have been Cody), was educated in a seminary. He began his career as a retailer of hose at Skinner Row, Dublin (1793). After the failure of this business and other…

Coffey, Brian (1905–95), poet, academic, teacher, and publisher, was born 8 June 1905 at Glenageary, Co. Dublin, son of Denis J. Coffey (qv), president of UCD, and Maude Coffey (née Quin…

Coffey, Charles (1700–45), playwright, was born in Dublin, where he worked as a schoolmaster; nothing more is known about his early life. Distinguished more for editing the works of others than for writing his own, his first production was a ballad opera entitled ‘The beggar's…

Coghill, Nevill Henry Kendal Aylmer (1899–1980), professor of English and translator of Chaucer, was born 19 April 1899 at Castletownshend, Co. Cork, second child among three sons and a daughter of Sir Egerton Bushe Coghill, 5th baronet and landscape artist, and Elizabeth Coghill,…

Coghill, Rhoda Sinclair (1903–2000), pianist, composer, and poet, was born 14 October 1903 in Dublin, the youngest of eight children of Alexander Sinclair Coghill, printing manager, from Thurso, Scotland, and his wife, Rhoda Ann Sinclair (née Baily). Coghill attended Alexandra…

Collis, John Stewart (1900–84), writer and naturalist, was born 16 Febuary 1900 in Kilmore, Killiney, Co Dublin, one of twin sons (his twin was Robert Collis (qv)) of William Stewart Collis, a solicitor in the…

Collis, Maurice Stewart (1889–1973), author, artist, and civil servant, was born 10 January 1889 in Eglinton Road, Donnybrook, Dublin, the eldest son of William Stewart Collis, a solicitor in the firm of Collis & Ward, and Edith Lilla Collis (née Barton);…

Collis, (William) Robert Fitzgerald (‘Bob’) (1900–75), paediatrician, author, and rugby player, was born 16 February 1900 at Kilmore, Killiney, Co. Dublin, one of twin sons (his twin was John Stewart Collis (qv)) of William Stewart…

Colmán (fl. 9th cent.), the otherwise unknown author of two well-constructed poems in Virgilian hexameters. One of the poems recalls a miracle of St Brigit (qv); it was written at Rome (in Roma…