Biographies A-Z

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Geary, Francis (‘Frank’) Joseph

Geary, Francis (‘Frank’) Joseph (1891–1961), journalist and newspaper editor, was born 2 August 1891 in Kilkenny city, youngest son of Patrick Geary – grocer, GAA stalwart, and supporter of…

Geary (Garry), Thomas Augustine (Timothy)

Geary (Garry), Thomas Augustine (Timothy) (1775–1801), composer, was born in Dublin in 1775 (his date of birth is sometimes given as 1772), the son of Timothy Garry (senior). Geary (who signed himself ‘Timothy Garry’ at the age of fifteen) later adopted the first names Thomas Augustine…

Geary, Robert Charles (‘Roy’)

Geary, Robert Charles (‘Roy’) (1896–1983), statistician, was born in Dublin on 11 April 1896, the first child in the family of two sons and two daughters of Edmond Geary (who probably died in the late 1920s), an official in the general registrar's office, a keen mathematician and…

Geddes, Wilhelmina Margaret

Geddes, Wilhelmina Margaret (1887–1955), stained-glass artist, was born 25 May 1887 at her maternal grandparents’ home, Drumreilly, Co. Leitrim, eldest of four children of Belfast-born William Geddes, site engineer with the Sligo, Leitrim, and Northern Counties Railway, and Eliza Geddes…

Geehan, Thomas

Geehan, Thomas (fl. 1925–64), communist and unemployed workers leader, was born to a catholic family in Belfast, where he was reared in the Falls Road area. Employed as a textile worker, by the mid 1920s he was secretary of the west Belfast branch of the Northern Ireland…

Geldof, Zenon

Geldof, Zenon (1882–1939), chef, restaurateur, and entrepreneur, was born 28 February 1882 at Boesinghe (Boesinge), near Ypres, Belgium, son of Zenon Geldof, schoolteacher, and his wife Mini. He served his apprenticeship in confectionery in Bruges. His experience working in London's…

Geneville (Joinville), Geoffrey de

Geneville (Joinville), Geoffrey de (p.1226–1314), justiciar of Ireland and royal agent, was born in, or shortly after, 1226, the younger son of Simon, lord of Joinville, seneschal of Champagne, and his second wife, Beatrix, daughter of Estienne, count of Burgundy and…

Gentleman, Francis

Gentleman, Francis (1728–84), actor and dramatist, was born 23 October 1728 at York St., Dublin, son of a captain in the British army. A sickly child, he was nursed gradually to health, and at the age of ten was educated at the school of the Rev. Mr Butler at Digges St., Dublin,…

Geoghegan, Arthur Gerald

Geoghegan, Arthur Gerald (1810–89), poet, was born 1 June 1810 in Dublin, son of James Geoghegan and his wife Elizabeth (née Richardson). He joined the civil service in 1830, serving as an exciseman in various towns in Ireland, including Cork city, Ennis, Co. Clare, and Derry city,…

Geoghegan, James

Geoghegan, James (1886–1951), politician and judge, was born 8 December 1886 in Walshestown, Co. Westmeath, one of two children of farmers Thomas Geoghegan and Bridget Geoghegan (née Carney). Educated at the CBS at Mullingar, he…

Geoghegan, Richard Henry

Geoghegan, Richard Henry (or Henry Richard; ‘Harry ’) (1866–1943), linguist, was born 8 January 1866 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, son of Richard Taylor Geoghegan, an Irish doctor with a practice in Liverpool as well as in Dublin, and Bessie Geoghegan (née Willis). The family had a house…

Gerald (Garald)

Gerald (Garald) (d. 726/32) of Mayo, romanising reformer and abbot-bishop of Mag Éo na Saxan, was – according to his fabulous late medieval Life – born in England, son of a certain Cusperius and an unnamed queen. He received his monastic training and education with his three…

Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis)

Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) (c.1146–c.1223), cleric and writer, was born at Manorbier (Maenor Pyr) castle, Pembrokeshire (Dyfed), Wales, of mixed Norman and Welsh ancestry, youngest son of William de Barri and his wife Angharad, daughter of Nesta, the…

Gerrard, Sir William

Gerrard, Sir William (d. 1581), lord chancellor of Ireland, was son of Gilbert Gerrard of Ince, Lancashire, and his wife Eleanor, daughter of William Davison, alderman of Chester. He was a cousin of Sir Gilbert Gerrard, master of the rolls in England. William Gerrard entered…

Getty, Edmund

Getty, Edmund (1799–1857), antiquarian, was born 2 March 1799 in North St., Belfast, youngest and only surviving son among four sons of Robert Getty (1761–1829), merchant, and his wife Susanna (d. 1802), eldest daughter of Nicholas Grimshaw of Whitehouse, cotton spinner and a…

Getty, Robert

This is a co-subject for the entry on Getty, Edmund. View the original entry.

Gibb (Gibson), Rosemary Elizabeth Jane (‘Rosy’)

Gibb (Gibson), Rosemary Elizabeth Jane (‘Rosy’) (1942–97), social worker, clown, and magician, was born 8 November 1942 in Dublin, the only child of Jack Gibson, a well-known surgeon and hypnotist, and Elizabeth Maude Gibson (née James). She passed her early childhood in Guernsey, where…

Gibbings, Robert John

Gibbings, Robert John (1889–1958), engraver, illustrator, and author, was born 23 March 1889 in Co. Cork, son of the Rev. Edward Gibbings, rector of Carrigrohane, and Caroline Gibbings (née Day). He was educated at boarding schools in Fermoy and Cork before entering…

Gibbons, Barry Duncan

Gibbons, Barry Duncan (c.1797–1862), civil engineer, was born about 1797 but practically nothing is known of his early life. According to a posthumous memoir by M. Bernard Mullins (c.1862), he began his career in commercial activity and had taken up civil…

Gibbons, Geraldine Henrietta (Mary Scholastica)

Gibbons, Geraldine Henrietta (Mary Scholastica) (c.1817–1901), founder and first superior of the Community of the Good Samaritan, was born in Kinsale, Co. Cork, the daughter of Gerald Gibbons, a landowner, and Mary Gibbons (née Sughrue), niece of the bishop of Ferns. She…

Gibbons, Hugh

Gibbons, Hugh (1916–2007), Gaelic footballer, medical doctor and politician, was born 6 July 1916 in Ballybeg, Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, the fourth child of Luke Gibbons and his wife Ellen (née Egan). His parents married in 1910 and his father was a publican and merchant. Hugh Gibbons…

Gibbons, James M. (‘Jim’)

Gibbons, James M. (‘Jim’) (1924–97), government minister, was born 2 August 1924 in Bonnettsrath, just outside Kilkenny city, the son of Martin Gibbons, a local farmer, and his wife Agnes (née Bowe). An uncle, Sean Gibbons (1881–1952), was a Cumann na nGaedheal TD for Carlow–…

Gibbon, (William) Monk

Gibbon, (William) Monk (1896–1987), poet and writer, was born 15 December 1896 in Dundrum, Co. Dublin, son of Canon William Gibbon, a rural dean in Taney parish, Dundrum, and Agnes Gibbon (née Pollock), who had four children from a previous marriage. Gibbon was educated at St Columba's…

Gibney, Frank

Gibney, Frank (1905–78), architect and town planner, was born 20 April 1905, son of Joseph Francis Gibney, architect, and his wife Eleanor (née Bassett). Aged 18 he went to work for his father (who had been apprenticed to the office of William Kaye Parry), and five years later moved…

Gibney, (John) Arthur

Gibney, (John) Arthur (1931–2006), architect, was born 6 August 1931 in the Rotunda hospital, Dublin, the only child of John Gibney, a dentist, of 8 Orchard Road, off Clonliffe Road, Dublin, and his wife Margaret (née Green). After attending St Joseph's…