Brouncker, Sir Henry
Brouncker, Sir Henry (c.1550–1607), soldier and administrator, was second son of Henry Brouncker of Melksham and Erlestoke, Wiltshire, and his second wife Ursula (née Yate) of Lyford, Berkshire. Educated at the Middle Temple (1566), he held three parliamentary seats in…...
Brown, Christopher (‘Christy’)
Brown, Christopher (‘Christy’) (1932–81), writer and artist, was born 5 June 1932 at the Rotunda hospital, Dublin, the sixth of thirteen surviving children among the twenty-two children of Patrick Brown, bricklayer and veteran of the 1916 rising, of 33 North King St., and Bridget…...
Browne, Arthur
Browne, Arthur (1756?–1805), lawyer, legal and classical scholar, and MP, was born probably in Newport, Rhode Island, North America, the only son of Marmaduke Browne (1731–71), rector of Trinity church, Newport, and later a founding fellow of Rhode Island College (from 1804 Brown…...
Browne, Daniel J. (‘Dan’)
Browne, Daniel J. (‘Dan’) (1895–1959), lawyer and civil servant, was born 21 May 1895, the youngest of the fourteen children of Daniel Browne, shopkeeper and butcher, and Ellen (née Walsh), of the Corner House, Church Street, Listowel, Co. Kerry. After a distinguished career as a…...
Browne, Henry Martyn
Browne, Henry Martyn (1853–1941), classicist and Jesuit priest, was born 7 August 1853 in Claughton, Woodchurch, Cheshire, England, the second of four sons and one daughter of John Wilson Browne, hardware merchant, born in Portugal (1824), and Jane Susan Browne (née McKnight), one…...
Browne, John
Browne, John (d. 1589), mapmaker, sheriff, and (in his words) ‘the first Englishman that in the memory of man settled himself to dwell in the county of Mayo’, was probably of the Anglo-Norman Brownes of Kilpatrick, Co. Westmeath. In August 1583, as servant to Sir Christopher Hatton…...
Brownell, Reginald Samuel
Brownell, Reginald Samuel (1893–1961), civil servant, was born 5 February 1893, son of Thomas and Susanna Brownell; from about 1906, he lived with his mother and at least one brother in Glasnevin, Dublin, attending Mountjoy School. He was a scholar in…...
Browne, Richard Francis (‘Dick’)
Browne, Richard Francis (‘Dick’) (1892–1965), public servant, was born 5 March 1892, one of the seven children of John Joseph Browne, commercial traveller/agent (later managing director of Monson Robinson & Co., printers), and his wife, Kate (née Burrows). The family lived at…...
Browne, Sir Valentine
Browne, Sir Valentine (d. 1589), English official and settler in Ireland, was the son of Sir Valentine Browne (d. 1568), of Crofts, Lincolnshire. In a career spanning at least forty years he served three monarchs as an auditor. He audited the accounts of the royal castle at Berwick…...
Brown, James (‘Jimmy’)
Brown, James (‘Jimmy’) (1956–92), republican socialist and drug-dealer, was born in Broadway Road off the Falls Road, west Belfast, son of Jimmy Brown, brewery worker, and his wife Eileen, part-time domestic help. He joined the Official IRA…...
Bruce, William
Bruce, William (1790–1868), presbyterian minister and classicist, was born in Belfast on 16 November 1790, the second son of William Bruce (qv) (1757–1841), presbyterian minister, and his wife, Susannah (née Hutton). After a schooling…...
Brun, Fromund le
Brun, Fromund le (d. 1283), chancellor of Ireland and papal chaplain, may have been related to William le Brun, another clerk in royal service. He first appears in Ireland in 1248 as a clerk of the justiciar, John FitzGeoffrey (qv…...
Bryskett, Lodowick
Bryskett, Lodowick (1546?–1612?), writer and official, was born possibly in Hackney, Middlesex, third son of Antonio Bruschetto of Genoa (a London merchant since the 1520s) and his wife Elizabeth, also Italian. Educated at Tonbridge and Trinity College, Cambridge, he entered the…...
Buck, Adam
Buck, Adam (1759–1833), artist, was born in Cork, elder son of Jonathan Buck, silversmith of Castle St. He appears to have been largely self-taught. Like his brother Frederick (1771–c.1840), a less talented artist, he practised in Cork, where he produced miniatures and small…...
Bulfin, Éamonn (Edmond)
Bulfin, Éamonn (Edmond) (1892–1968), republican activist and civil servant, was born in Buenos Aires on 22 September 1892, the eldest of five children of the journalist William Bulfin (qv), editor of the Southern Cross, and his wife…...
Bulger, Michael Joseph
This is a co-subject for the entry on Bulger, Lawrence Quinlivan ('Larry'). View the original entry....
Burbidge, Frederick William
Burbidge, Frederick William (1847–1905), botanist, artist, and curator of the botanical gardens of TCD, was born 21 March 1847 at Wymeswold, Leicestershire, England, son of Thomas Burbidge, farmer, and Mary Burbidge (née Spencer).…...
Burgess, Henry Givens
Burgess, Henry Givens (1859–1937), transport administrator, was born 6 April 1859 at Finnoe House, near Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary, son of George Burgess, land steward of the Waller family; his mother's maiden name was Givens. His father farmed in an area so ‘troubled’ by…...
Burgh, Richard de
Burgh, Richard de (c.1193–1243), magnate, justiciar, and lord of Connacht, was eldest son of William de Burgh (qv) and a daughter of Domnall Mór Ua Briain (qv), and nephew…...
Burgh, Thomas
Burgh, Thomas (1744–1810), MP and administrator, was born in May 1744, second son among eight children of Thomas Burgh (1696–1758) of Bert, Co. Kildare, landowner and MP for Lanesborough, Co. Longford (1727–58), and his wife Anne, daughter of Dive Downes, bishop of Cork and Ross (…...
Burgh, William de
Burgh, William de (1312–33), 3rd earlof Ulster , lieutenant of Ireland, was born in 1312, the eldest son of John de Burgh (d. 1313) and Elizabeth de Clare (qv), sister of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester. His uncle…...
Burgh, William Liath de
Burgh, William Liath de (d. 1324), deputy justiciar of Ireland, was the son of William de Burgh (d. 1270), younger brother of Walter de Burgh (qv), 1st earl of Ulster, and was probably brought up in Connacht where he spent much of his…...
Burgoyne, Sir John Fox
Burgoyne, Sir John Fox (1782–1871), engineer and administrator, was born 24 July 1782, eldest of the four illegitimate children of Lt-gen. ‘Gentleman’ John Burgoyne and Susan Caulfield, singer. Educated at Eton and Woolwich military academy, he joined the Royal Engineers at 16; saw…...
Burke, Augustus Nicholas
Burke, Augustus Nicholas (c.1838–1891), painter, was born at Waterslade, Knocknagur, Co. Galway, the sixth son of William Burke, a catholic gentleman and landowner, and Fanny Xaveria Burke (née Tucker) of Brook Lodge, Sussex. Educated at a private catholic school in…...
Burke, Oliver
Burke, Oliver (c.1598–1672), Dominican priest and ecclesiastical administrator in Rome and Connacht, was born in Co. Galway, a member of the Clanricard Burke family. He studied at Burgos and was listed as a priest in Spain in 1627. In that year he became an honours…...