Brennan, Martin
Brennan, Martin (1900–56), revolutionary, doctor, politician, and film censor, was born 9 August 1900 in the family home at Rhue, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, sixth of thirteen children of Matthew Brennan (d. 1921), farmer and Fenian, and his wife Bridget (d. 1934), teacher, daughter of…...
Brennan, Robert
Brennan, Robert (1881–1964), republican, journalist, writer, and diplomat, was born in Co. Wexford on 22 July 1881, second child and eldest son among four children of Robert Brennan (d. 1919), cattle dealer, and Bridget Brennan (née Kearney; d. 1938), dressmaker. He was educated…...
Brennan, William
Brennan, William (d. 1840), highwayman, was born at Raspberry Hill, Co. Waterford. In the late 1830s he was working at Kilmurry House, Co. Cork, the property of a Mr Grant. Caught while attempting to steal a watch, he became an outlaw, raised a gang, and based himself in the…...
Bretland, Josiah Corbett
Bretland, Josiah Corbett (1846–a.1921), engineer, architect, and city surveyor, was born 4 January 1846 in Nottingham, England, and articled (1863–7) to M. O. Tarbottom; nothing is known of his parents or early education. He was successively assistant surveyor (1868–84) and…...
Brett, (Sir) Charles Edward Bainbridge
Brett, (Sir) Charles Edward Bainbridge (1928–2005), solicitor, architectural historian and public figure in Northern Ireland, was born 30 October 1928 in Holywood, Co. Down, eldest of three children, two boys and a girl, of Charles Anthony Brett, a Belfast solicitor, and his wife…...
Bridgwater, John (Savan) of (John de Ponte)
Bridgwater, John (Savan) of (John de Ponte) (c.1248–1306/7), administrator, lawyer, and justice, was born no later than 1248 and perhaps several years before that (he was acting as an attorney by 1269 and therefore probably 21 or older in that year); his birthplace was…...
Brooke, William Graham
Brooke, William Graham (1834–1907), public servant, influential Church of Ireland layman, and promoter of education, was born 16 July 1834 in Wyton, Huntington, England, the second son of Rev. Richard Sinclair Brooke, curate of Glendoen, near Letterkenny, Co. Donegal (and from…...
Brooks, John
Brooks, John (b. c.1710, d. p. 1756), engraver and inventor, a native of Dublin, was the son of John Brooks, and was possibly of Dutch descent. The name also occurs in Dublin at that period as van der Brooks, and there were others of the name involved in…...
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…...
Browne (Altamont), Jeremy Ulick
Browne (Altamont), Jeremy Ulick (1939–2014), 11th marquis of Sligo and entrepreneur, was born on 4 June 1939 in London, the only child of…...
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…...
Bryans, Robert Harbinson ('Robin Harbinson'; 'Robert Harbinson')
Bryans, Robert Harbinson ('Robin Harbinson'; 'Robert Harbinson') (1928–2005), memoirist and travel writer, was born on the Newtownards Road, Belfast, on 24 April 1928, third child and only son of Robert Bryans, musician and window cleaner, and his wife Georgina (née Campbell), known as…...
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…...
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…...
Bulfin, William
Bulfin, William (1863–1910), journalist in Argentina and travel writer, was born at Derrinlough House, near Birr, King's County (Offaly), and baptised 14 November 1863, fourth son in the family of ten sons and one daughter of William Bulfin, a strong farmer, and his wife Ellen (née…...
Bulger, Michael Joseph
This is a co-subject for the entry on Bulger, Lawrence Quinlivan ('Larry'). View the original entry....