Anster, John Martin
Anster, John Martin (1793–1867), poet, translator of Goethe's Faust, and regius professor of civil law in Dublin University, was born 21 October 1793 in Charleville, Cork, son of John Anster, distiller, and Mary Ann Anster (née Hiffernan). The family was catholic, and…...
Archer, Forster
Archer, Forster (1758/9–1826), protestant clergyman and inspector of prisons, was born in Co. Cork, the son of Richard Archer, a merchant. He entered TCD, aged seventeen (1 July 1776), graduated BA…...
Armstrong, Arthur
Armstrong, Arthur (1924–96), painter, was born 12 January 1924 at Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, one of three sons among six children of James Charlton Armstrong, house-painter and decorator, and his wife Margaret (née Howard). Soon after his birth the family moved to Belfast. He…...
Armstrong, Florence
Armstrong, Florence (1928–2010), teacher and pioneer of multi-denominational education, was born on 26 November 1928, one of four children (three boys and a girl) of Thomas Armstrong and his wife Elizabeth (née Dunne). Both parents were from farming backgrounds. Florence (usually…...
Armstrong, Sir Walter
Armstrong, Sir Walter (1850–1918), art historian and gallery director, was born 7 February 1850 in Roxburghshire, Scotland, eldest son of Walter Armstrong of Hawick, and educated at Harrow and Oxford (BA 1873). He taught at art schools in London…...
Ashe (Ash), Richard
Ashe (Ash), Richard (d. 1659), ecclesiastical official, was probably the son of Nicholas Ash of Newtown, Co. Meath, though he may have been the son of Henry Ashe. He is recorded as having married Alice Jones, daughter of Lewis Jones…...
Ashford, William
Ashford, William (1746–1824), artist, was christened on 20 May 1746 in St Martin's parish church, Birmingham, the son of Richard Ashford of Birmingham. Nothing is recorded of his early life in England but he almost certainly had some form of technical and/or artistic education. He…...
Assicus (T'Assach)
Assicus (T'Assach) (d. c.508), an artisan – i.e. coppersmith – of supposed Gaulish origin, came to Ireland at some stage during the mission of St Patrick (qv) and was later consecrated a bishop by him.…...
Aston, William George
Aston, William George (1841–1911), Japanese scholar and diplomat, was born 9 April 1841, near Derry, the son of George Robert Aston, a Unitarian minister. In the early 1850s the family moved to Saintfield, Co. Down, where his father established a school in which Aston himself taught…...
Atkinson, Robert
Atkinson, Robert (1839–1908), philologist, was born 6 April 1839 near Gateshead, Co. Durham, the only child of John and Ann Atkinson. He attended Anchorage Grammar School, and entered Trinity College Dublin (TCD) (1856), but spent 1857–8 at Liège, Belgium, and worked as a schoolmaster…...
Audley, James
Audley, James (c.1220–1272), justiciar of Ireland, was the eldest son of Henry de Audley, marcher baron of Shropshire and Staffordshire, and Bertred, daughter of Ralph Mainwaring, seneschal of Chester. He rose to prominence during the 1250s, received a number of royal…...
Augustinus (Pseudo-)
Augustinus (Pseudo-) (fl. mid 7th cent.) was author of the tract ‘De mirabilibus sacrae [or ‘sanctae’] scripturae’, internally datable to 655. It deals in an unusually rationalistic fashion – for the medieval period – with the ‘wonders’ or miracles related in Scripture.…...
Aungier, Gerald
Aungier, Gerald (c.1640–77), governor of Bombay, was probably born in Dublin, the second son of Ambrose Aungier (d. 1654), chancellor of St Patrick's cathedral, and a younger brother of Francis Aungier (c.1632–1700), 1st earl of…...
Aungier, Sir Francis
Aungier, Sir Francis (1558–1632), lawyer and administrator, eldest son of Richard Aungier of Cambridgeshire, barrister and treasurer of Gray's Inn, and Rose Aungier (née Stewart/Steward) of Ely, was baptised 14 May 1558 at Coton, Cambs. He was a queen's scholar at Westminster School…...
Avaux, Jean-Antoine de Mesmes
Avaux, Jean-Antoine de Mesmes (1640–1709), Comte d'Avaux , French ambassador to the Jacobite court in Ireland, was born into a noble Béarnais family. He became the most skilled French diplomat of his day, acting as Louis XIV's plenipotentiary at Nijmegen in 1675–8, and then as his…...
Axtell, Daniel
Axtell, Daniel (d. 1660), military governor of Kilkenny, was almost certainly born in southern England, and was apprenticed to a grocer in Watling St. (London). In the English civil war he joined the parliamentary army from religious conviction, rose to be lieutenant-colonel,…...
Aylmer, Sir Gerald
Aylmer, Sir Gerald (1484?–1560), lawyer and administrator, was one of nine children of Bartholomew Aylmer of Lyons, Co. Kildare, and Margaret Aylmer (née Chevers) of Macetown, Co. Meath, a granddaughter of William Welles (qv), lord…...
Bacon, Francis
Bacon, Francis (1909–92), artist, was born 28 October 1909 at 63 Lower Baggot St., Dublin, second eldest of three sons and two daughters of Anthony Edward (‘Eddy’) Mortimer Bacon, and his wife Christina Winifred (‘Winnie’) Loxley Firth, both of England. His father, a former captain…...
Bagenal, Philip Henry Dudley
Bagenal, Philip Henry Dudley (1850–1927), public official and political writer, was born 18 June 1850, the youngest of the four sons of Philip Bagenal (1796–1856), a landowner, of Benekerry, Co. Carlow, and his wife, Georgiana Thomasina, daughter of James Boyd of Rosslare, Co.…...
Bagot (Bagod), Robert
Bagot (Bagod), Robert (d. 1298), knight and chief justice of the common bench, Dublin, was probably (according to Ball) son of Ralph Bagot of Co. Dublin; however, he may have been related to William Bagot, sheriff of Warwick and Bedford, a justice who rose to prominence during the…...
Bagot, Robert
This is a co-subject for the entry on Bagot (Bagod), Robert. View the original entry....
Bailey, William Frederick
Bailey, William Frederick (1857–1917), lawyer, public servant and littérateur, was born 9 February 1857 at Castletown Conyers, Co. Limerick, eldest of two sons and three daughters of Dr William Bailey, retired from the Royal Navy, and his wife Annie (née Harding) from Cherry Hill,…...
Baillie (Bailie), James Kennedy
Baillie (Bailie), James Kennedy (1793?–1864), classicist and protestant clergyman, was the son of the Rev. Nicholas Ward Kennedy, a schoolmaster, and grandson of James Kennedy, a medical man in Co. Down. He entered TCD aged fourteen (1807),…...
Baillie, William
Baillie, William (1723–1810), printmaker and art dealer, was born 11 June 1723 at Kilbride, Co. Carlow, the second son of the upholsterer Robert Baillie of Celbridge, Co. Kildare, and his wife Susanna (née Antrobus). After his education at Dr…...
Baily, William Hellier
Baily, William Hellier (1819–88), palaeontologist and artist, was born 7 July 1819 in Bristol, England, into a family of carvers and sculptors. He was curatorial assistant of Bristol museum (1837–44); served the Geological Survey of Great Britain as draughtsman (1844), assistant…...