Biographies A-Z

Haugh, Kevin O'Hanrahan (1901–69), attorney general and judge, was born 17 November 1901 in Dublin, second among four children of Professor John Joseph Haugh (d. 1908), mathematician, of Cooraclare, Co. Clare, and Kathleen (O'Hanrahan) Haugh (d. 1938). His father, author of …

Haughton, James (1795–1873), social reformer and philanthropist, was born 5 May 1795 in Carlow town, eldest son of Samuel Pearson Haughton (1748–1828), corn merchant, and his wife Mary (née Pim) of Ruskin, Queen's Co. (Laois). Although both parents left the Society of Friends…

Haughton, Samuel (1821–97), geologist, physiologist and mathematician, was born 21 December 1821 in Carlow, second of three sons of Samuel Haughton, merchant, and Sarah Haughton (née Hancock). Although of quaker stock, Haughton was brought up within the established church. He entered…

Haughton, William Steele (1869–1951), surgeon and pioneer in radiology, was born 26 September 1869 in Dublin, fourth and youngest son among six children of Professor Samuel Haughton (qv), scientist and polymath, and his wife and cousin…

Havard, William (1710–78), actor and playwright, was born 12 July 1710 in Dublin, the son of a vintner; nothing more is known of his parents. After receiving a good education (evidenced by his later writings), he was apprenticed to a surgeon but soon abandoned that profession in…

Havel, Miroslav ('Paddy') (1922–2008), glass designer and craftsman, was born in Držkov, Czechoslovakia, on 26 May 1922, the only child of Frantisek Havel, costume jewellery manufacturer of Držkov, and his wife Anna (née Klubelova). He had a prosperous, somewhat sheltered, upbringing in…

Haverty, Joseph (1794–1864), portrait and subject painter, was born in Galway. Nothing is known of his early life and artistic training. In 1814 he submitted a painting from Galway to the Hibernian Society of Artists exhibition in Dublin, and by the following year he had taken up…

Haverty, Joseph ('Joe') (1936–2009), footballer, was born 17 February 1936 in Dublin, the son of Patrick Haverty, a brushmaker, and his wife Margaret (née Walsh). From the age of 14 he played schoolboy soccer with Home Farm (where he was a teammate of Tony O'Reilly) and won schoolboy…

Haverty, Martin (1809–87), journalist and historian, was born 1 December 1809 in Mayo, younger half-brother of the artist Joseph Haverty (qv). Nothing is known of their early life. Aspiring to the priesthood, Martin was educated at the…

Hawkey, John (1703–59), schoolmaster and editor, may have been born in Cove, Devon, or East Looe, Cornwall, son of John Hawkey, gaoler. Nothing is known of his mother. After schooling from Mr Spare in Liskeard, Cornwall, he entered TCD…

Hawthorne, Denys Vernon (1932–2009), actor, was born 9 August 1932 in Portadown, Co. Armagh, the only child of (Robert) Victor Hawthorne, who owned a factory making handkerchiefs, and his wife Anne (née Cooke). He attended Portadown College, where several of the teachers, especially the…

Hawthorne, James Burns (1930–2006), teacher, television producer, and controller of BBC Northern Ireland, was born in Belfast on 27 March 1930, one of identical twin sons of Thomas (Tommy) Hawthorne, who worked in a shoe shop, and his wife, Florence (Florrie) (née Burns). There were two…

Hayden, Father Augustine (1870–1954), Capuchin priest, nationalist and Irish language advocate, was born John Hayden in November 1870, to William Hayden and Mary Hayden (née Morrisey) in Gowran, Kilkenny, and grew up in Blarney, Co. Cork, where his father was appointed railway station…

Hayden, John Patrick (1863–1954), nationalist MP, newspaper proprietor, and editor, was born 25 April 1863 in Roscommon, son of Luke Hayden. After attending a local school he went to work for his brother Luke P. Hayden, proprietor and editor of the Roscommon Messenger. In…

Hayden, Mary Teresa (1862–1942), historian and women's rights campaigner, was born 19 May 1862 in Merrion Square, Dublin, only daughter of Thomas Hayden (qv), physician and later vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Mary…

Hayden, Thomas (1823–81), physician, was born into a landowning family in Parsonshill, near Fethard, Co. Tipperary. His father's cousin was Bartholomew Hayden (1792–1857), born in Co. Tipperary, who had a distinguished career in the Brazilian navy, reaching the rank of commodore.…

Haydn, Joseph Timothy (1788/1793–1856), newspaper editor and compiler of reference works, was born in Lisbon in 1788 or 1793, the son of Thomas Haydn, a protestant Irish expatriate. He was educated in Portugal before he moved to Dublin in 1818 to found The Stage, an…

Hay, Edward (1761?–1826), catholic activist and historian, was born in Ballinkeele, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, eldest of four sons of Harvey Hay (d. 1796), a wealthy member of the catholic gentry, and Catherine Hay (née Fergus). Educated in France and Germany, he returned to…

Hay, Edward Norman (1889–1943), composer, organist and critic, was born 19 April 1889 in Faversham, Kent, the only child of parents from Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, his father a customs and excise officer on a temporary posting. When his mother died some six weeks after the birth,…

Hayes, Catherine (1818–61), soprano, was born 25 October 1818 at 4 Patrick St., Limerick, younger of two daughters of Arthur W. Hayes, a bandmaster with the local militia, and Mary Hayes (née Carroll) who worked in the household of the earl of Limerick. The Rev. Edmund Knox, the…

Hayes, (Francis) Mahon (Joseph) (1930–2011), lawyer and diplomat, was born on 2 March 1930 at Verdun, Wellington Road, Cork, the second of three sons of Francis Mahon Hayes (d. 1968), official with the Munster and Leinster Bank, and his wife Aileen (née Walsh). The family moved with…

Haye, Sir Walter de la (fl. 1272–1308), justice and administrator, was probably of English birth, and first appears in the records in 1271–2, having arrived in Ireland as a deputy to…

Hayes, John Martin (1887–1957), priest and catholic social activist, was born 11 November 1887 in a Land League hut at Murroe, Co. Limerick, youngest among ten children of Michael Hayes, a small farmer from Moher, Limerick, and Hanorah Hayes (née McCormack) of Maclaboy, also in…

Hayes, Margaret (1954–2014), civil servant, was born on 25 April 1954 in Urlingford, Co. Kilkenny, one of three girls and a boy to James (Jimmy) Hayes and his wife Mary (née Brennan). The Hayes family was immersed in the local community – Mary was a full-time farmer before her marriage…

Hayes, Michael (d. 1803), builder, was originally from Co. Tipperary but his background is otherwise obscure. He was already a master bricklayer when he was retained around 1782 by Robert Brooke (qv) for the new industrial settlement…