Linde Lunney joined the newly founded Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB) project as its very first staff member in 1983, having previously been a junior research fellow (1981-3) at the Institute of Irish Studies in Queen's University Belfast. At the DIB she established a database of possible names for inclusion, still the essential tool for the Dictionary to this day. During the research phase of the DIB, Linde began contributing entries, primarily on figures from the north of Ireland, women's history, science and emigrants, and during her years of service became the most prolific overall contributor to the DIB, researching and writing nearly 800 entries. Just before her retirement from the DIB in 2018, Linde co-edited Transatlantic Lives with James Quinn (DIB) and William Roulston of the Ulster Historical Foundation (UHF). Lunney is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh (MA) and Queen's University Belfast (Ph.D.), and has spoken on various aspects of Ulster history in conferences and elsewhere, over many years, and is the author of numerous scholarly articles.
Wingfield, Lewis Strange (1842–91), traveller, writer, actor, and painter, was born 25 February 1842 at Powerscourt, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, third and youngest son of Richard Wingfield, 6th Viscount Powerscourt, and his wife (and first cousin) Lady Elizabeth Frances Charlotte, eldest…