Lloyd, Joseph Henry (Laoide, Seosamh) (1865–1939), folklorist and Gaelic Leaguer, was born 24 May 1865 at 7 Annaville Lower, Ranelagh, Dublin, eldest son of Joseph Henry Lloyd, language scholar, and Anne Lloyd (née Phair). He was educated privately, probably by his father, and at the Model School on Marlborough St., Dublin. He studied Greek, Latin and Irish at TCD from 1890 to 1894, winning awards every year but not graduating due to other commitments. He was later among the first students to attend the School of Irish Learning in Dublin (founded 1903).
At 16 he took up employment with the audit office of the Great Northern Railways, a job that enabled him to travel free of charge throughout Ireland, and he later spent much of his free time visiting Irish-speaking parts of the country. As his father had done before him, he joined the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language in 1886, and the following year became a member of the society's council and publications committee. He began writing for Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge in 1891 and was its editor 1899–1902. Although not present at the founding meeting of the Gaelic League in July 1893, he was co-treasurer of the movement by autumn that year. On his visits to Irish-speaking Ireland, often doing Gaelic League work, he took a special interest in folklore and dialects, particularly of regions in which the language was weak. His collection of Monaghan folklore, Sgéaluidhe Fearnmhuighe, was published in 1901. On 1 January 1903, having resigned from the railway, he took up work as full-time editor of the publications committee of the league. Over the next twelve years he oversaw the publication of more than 300 books and pamphlets, many of which he wrote himself. In 1915, when the league decided to discontinue publishing books, he lost his job, and his work on behalf of the language ended. Feeling betrayed, he turned his back on the language movement. After failed attempts to obtain new employment, he moved to London in 1916, where he worked for the civil service, apparently translating letters written in Irish during the war. His mental health suffered somewhat during this period and he spent some time in a psychiatric institution before returning to Ireland.
Apart from his many Gaelic League publications he had articles published in Ériu and other scholarly journals. He was a member of the consultative council of the Irish Texts Society from 1902 and was elected to the RIA in 1909. In addition to his writing, he supplied Dublin corporation with Irish versions of street names, and his Post-sheanchas (2 vols, 1905, 1911) listed Irish-language forms of many of the country's placenames.
While in London he married Elizabeth Esther Georgina Sharp, originally of Co. Meath. They came back to live in Stillorgan, Dublin, in 1920, and moved to Dún Laoghaire in 1933. He died on 21 September 1939 and was buried in Deansgrange cemetery, Blackrock, Co. Dublin. His papers (mainly correspondence in Irish) are held in the library of the RIA.