Biographies A-Z

Frith, James Wiltshire (‘J. W.’) (1869–1948), journalist and racing official, was born 11 September 1869 at 8 Seapoint Terrace, Irishtown, Co. Dublin, son of James Frith, printer, and Maria Louisa Frith (née Wiltshire); assertions in his obituary notices that he was the son of a…

Frömel, Gerda (1931–75), sculptor, was born 5 November 1931 at Schönberg, Czechoslovakia, eldest of four daughters of German parents. The family moved to Vienna in 1945 and later to Germany, where Frömel studied art in Stuttgart (where she received a scholarship in 1949), Darmstadt…

Frosinone, John de (d. c.1274), papal legate and collector of ecclesiastical revenues in Ireland, was sent to Ireland by Innocent IV on 16 March 1249 to supervise the collection of the triennial tenth agreed at the general council of Lyons in 1245 for the relief of the…

Frost, Georgina (‘Georgie’) (1879–1939), court official, was born on 29 December 1879 in Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare, one of the five children of Thomas Frost (1842–1938) and his wife, Margaret Kett (d. 1888). Thomas Frost was the petty sessions clerk for Sixmilebridge and Newmarket-on…

Froude, James Anthony (1818–1894), historian, was born 23 April 1818 at Dartington, Devonshire, England, youngest among eight children of Archdeacon Robert Hurrell Froude, anglican clergyman, and Margaret Froude (née Spedding). He was educated at Westminster and at Oriel College,…

Frye, Thomas (1710–62), painter and mezzotint engraver, has traditionally been recorded as being born ‘in or near Dublin’, though it is likely he was born in Edenderry, King's Co. (Offaly), second among five sons of John Frye (1670–1752) and Anne Harrington, who also had two…

Fry, Oliver (1773–1868), major of Royal Artillery, Freemason, Orangeman, and diarist, was born 17 June 1773 at Frybrook, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, third son of Henry Fry, magistrate, and his second wife, Catherine (née Mills). He was educated by private tutors before entering…

Fulbourn, Stephen de (d. 1288), treasurer and justiciar of Ireland, bishop of Waterford and archbishop of Tuam, took his surname from the village of Fulbourn in the hundred of Flendish, about 8 km southeast of Cambridge. He was born sometime in the middle of the thirteenth century and…

Fullam, Robert (‘Bob’) (1895–1974), soccer player, was born 17 September 1895 in 32 Bridge St., Ringsend, Dublin, son of John Fullam, fisherman, and Mary Fullam (née Reilly). He began his football career in 1914 with St Brendan's in Dublin, and moved (1917) to another Dublin club,…

Fuller, Bill (William) (1917–2008), ballroom impresario and businessman, was born on 6 May 1917 in Glanoe, Kilfeighny, Co. Kerry, son of Stephen Fuller, a farmer of Glanoe, and his wife Mary (née Trant). He attended Tralee CBS and…

Fuller, James Franklin (1835–1924), architect, novelist, and antiquary, was born at Nedanone, near Derryquin, Co. Kerry, the only son among three children of Thomas Harnett Fuller (d. 1886), landowner, and his wife Frances Diana (d. 1872), daughter of Francis Bland,…

Fuller, Stephen (1899–84), farmer, political activist and survivor of the 1923 Ballyseedy massacre, was born on 25 December 1899 at Fahavane, a hamlet just outside the village of Kilflynn, north of Tralee, Co. Kerry. The eldest child of Daniel Fuller, ‘an extensive farmer’, (…

Fullerton, Andrew (1868–1934), surgeon, was born 20 March 1868 in Wesley Street, Cavan, the third son of the seven children of Rev. Alexander Fullerton, a methodist clergyman, and his wife Mary Jane (née Moffitt), a close relative of General Gordon of Khartoum. His paternal…

Fulton, Robert Patrick (1906–79), soccer player, was born 6 November 1906 in Gardenmore Place, Larne, Co. Antrim, son of John Fulton, mercantile clerk, and Maggie Fulton (née Purdy). He played soccer as a youth in the Falls Park League and had joined Belfast Celtic as a full back by…

Funge, Paul (1944–2011), artist and cultural impresario, was born Matthew Paul Funge on 25 January 1944 in Earslfort Terrace, Dublin, the youngest of three sons of Thomas Funge, a draper, of Main Street, Gorey, Co. Wexford, and his wife Ellen (née Doyle). His brother Michael followed…

Furlong, Alice (1871–1946), poet, was born at Knocklaiquin Lodge, near Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, one of four daughters of James Walter Furlong, the sports editor of a Dublin newspaper, who was originally from Wexford. Her sisters Mary (1866–98) and Katherine (1872–94) became published…

Furlong, George Joseph (1898–1987), art historian and gallery director, was born 1 February 1898 in Dundrum, seven miles north-west of Cashel, Co. Tipperary, son of Michael Furlong, hotel proprietor, and Kate Mary Furlong (née Bourke). Although he was orphaned at 9, the family…

Furlong, Thomas (1794–1827), poet, was born in Scarawalsh, near Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, the son of a small farmer. He received little formal education and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to a Dublin grocer. One of his earliest literary efforts, an elegy entitled ‘The burial’,…

Furniss, Harry (1854–1925), illustrator and caricaturist, was born 26 March 1854 in Wexford town, youngest son of James Furniss, civil engineer, originally from Hathersage, Derbyshire, and his second wife Isabella Cornelia, daughter of Eneas McKenzie, topographer, of Newcastle upon…

Fursa (Fursu, Furseus) (d. 649/50), Irish missionary abbot and visionary associated with East Anglia and Péronne (in Picardy in northern France), was a brother of Foillan (qv) and Ultan (Ir. Ultán). The brothers are supposed to have been…