Biographies A-Z

O'Brien, Daniel (c.1630–1690), 3rd Viscount Clare , army officer, was the only son (there were also seven daughters) of Conor O'Brien (c.1605–70), 2nd Viscount Clare, and his wife, Honora O'Brien (d. in or after 1701), daughter of Daniel O'Brien of Dough,…

O'Brien, Denis Thomas (1736?–1814), merchant, catholic politician, and benefactor, was the younger son of Thomas O'Brien (d. 1756) of Fairfield, near Ahascragh, Co. Galway, and his wife Mary (1710?–83), a daughter of Christopher French of Tyrone, Co. Galway. Thomas was in business as a…

O'Brien, Dermod (1865–1945), artist, was born 10 June 1865 at Foynes, Co. Limerick, the only son and second among three children of Edward William O'Brien (1837–1909), landowner, JP, DL and high sheriff…

O'Brien, Dermot (1932–2007), musician and Gaelic footballer, was born 23 October 1932 in Ardee, Co. Louth, the son of Paddy O'Brien, labourer and bandmaster of the Ardee Brass and Reed Band, of Dolan Terrace, Ardee, and his wife Nancy (née Dowdall). He attended Ardee's De La Salle…

O'Brien, Desmond Joseph ('Des') (1919–2005), rugby player and business executive, was born 22 May 1919 in Dublin, the son of Tim O'Brien and his wife Mary (née Molloy). Educated at Belvedere College (1930–36), he joined Old Belvedere RFC in 1938, playing as flanker on the first two (…

O'Brien, Donal Cruise (1941–2012), political scientist, was born in Dublin on 4 July 1941, eldest of two daughters and a son of Conor Cruise O'Brien (qv), diplomat, politician and writer, and his first wife Christine (née Foster). He…

This is a co-subject for the entry on O'Brien (Ó Briain), Toirrdelbach. View the original entry.

O'Brien, Donough (d. 1624), 4th earl of Thomond, nobleman and president of Munster, was the eldest son of Conor O'Brien (qv), 3rd earl of Thomond, and his second wife, Úna, daughter of Turlough O'Brien Arra (known as Mac I Brien Arra). His…

O'Brien, Edward (1806–40), lawyer and writer, was born 6 December 1806 in Dromoland, Co. Clare, third son of Sir Edward O'Brien (1773–1837), 4th baronet and MP for Clare, 1802–26, and his wife, Charlotte, daughter of William Smith of Cahirmoyle, Co. Limerick. Edward's older brother…

O Brien, Conor (1880–1952), sailor and author, was born Edward Conor Marshall O'Brien on 3 November 1880 in Cahirmoyle, Co. Limerick, the son of Edward William O'Brien, JP, and Julia O'Brien (née Marshall). A grandson of…

O'Brien, Eileen Mary (Ní Bhriain, Eibhlín ) (1925–86), journalist, was born 23 January 1925 at 37 Lower Leeson St., Dublin, only child of Liam O'Brien (Ó Briain) (qv) of 15 Lower Sherrard St., Dublin, nationalist and professor of romance…

O'Brien, Ellen Lucy (‘Nelly’) (Ní Bhriain, Neilí) (1864–1925), miniature and landscape artist, and Gaelic League activist, was born 4 June 1864, the eldest of two daughters and one son of Edward William O'Brien, landowner, of Cahirmoyle, Co. Limerick, and Mary O'Brien (née Spring Rice…

O'Brien, Fitz-James (1828–62), writer, was born Michael Fitzjames O'Brien in Cork, the only child of James O'Brien (1780–1839), county coroner, and his wife Eliza, daughter of Michael O'Driscoll of Baltimore, Co. Cork. They were well off and lived at 58 South Mall, Cork city. Eliza'…

O'Brien, Frances Marcella (‘Attie ’) (1840–83), poet and novelist, was born 24 June 1840 near Ennis, Co. Clare, second youngest among three sons and two daughters of William O'Brien, farmer, from Co. Clare, and Marcella O'Brien (née Burke-Browne) of Newgrove, Co. Clare. Her mother…

O'Brien, Francis Cruise (1885–1927), journalist, author, and cooperationist, was born 18 November 1885, at 6 Grantham St., Dublin, one of two children of John Cruise O’Brien, a law clerk, and Mary Cruise O’Brien (née Lally); his sister, Cathleen, married the novelist…

O'Brien, George Augustine Thomas (1892–1973), economic historian and economist, was born 26 January 1892 in Dublin, only child of Richard O'Brien (d. 1906), hotelier, by his second marriage, to Mary (née Dowse) (d. 1946), a native of Co. Wicklow. His father, a self-made…

O'Brien, Henry (1808–35), antiquary, was born in Co. Kerry, and was apparently third son of Bryan O'Brien of Dromin and Ellen O'Brien (née MacCarthy), who were minor catholic gentry; if he was, he entered King's Inns in Dublin in 1828, having been educated in…

This is a co-subject for the entry on O'Brien, Barnabas (Bryan, Barnaby). View the original entry.

O'Brien, Ignatius John (1857–1930), Baron Shandon , lord chancellor of Ireland, was born 31 July 1857 in Cork city, ninth child and youngest son of Mark Joseph O'Brien, chandler and brewer's agent and freeman of Cork, and his wife Jane, daughter of William Dunne, also of Cork. His…

O'Brien, James (‘Bronterre ’) (1804–64), chartist, was born in Granard, Co. Longford, in February 1804. He was the son of a wine, spirit, and tobacco merchant, Daniel O'Brien, and his wife, Mary Kearney. James was baptised in the catholic faith in February 1804, as was a sister, in…

O'Brien, James Francis Xavier (1828–1905), nationalist, was born 16 October 1828 in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, second son of Timothy O'Brien (d. 1854), a prosperous merchant; nothing is known of his mother. After attending a local private school, he studied for one term as a…

O'Brien, James Nagle (1848–78), Fenian, was born at Mallow, Co. Cork, the eldest of three sons and one daughter born to James O'Brien, a solicitor's clerk, and Kate, daughter of James Nagle, a prosperous Mallow merchant. The home was a nationalist one: he was a brother of…

O'Brien, James Thomas (1792–1874), Church of Ireland bishop of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin, was born 27 September 1792 in New Ross, Co. Wexford, the son of Michael Burke O'Brien, a corporation officer, and his wife, Dorothy (d. 1803), the daughter of Thomas Kough, of New Ross. His…

O'Brien, John Joseph (Jack) (1910–83), businessman, was born 31 January 1910, second son of Henry Joseph O'Brien, hotel proprietor and house agent of Waterloo Rd, Dublin, and his wife Mary Josephine (née Byrne). Educated at Belvedere College, Dublin, he took a keen interest in…

O'Brien, John (Ó Briain, Seán) (c.1701–69), bishop and lexicographer, was born at Ballyvoddy, about 5 km north of Glanworth, Co. Cork, son of Thomas O'Brien, a prosperous farmer, and his wife, Eleanor MacEniry, a native of Co. Limerick. Nothing is known of his early…