Blake, Richard Thomas
Blake, Richard Thomas (1868–1937), secretary of the GAA and journalist, was born 15 January 1868 at Ladyrath, Rathkenny, Navan, Co. Meath, eldest son of seven sons and one daughter of Philip Blake (d. 1906), large farmer, and Eliza Martha Blake (née Cogan). His interest in and…...
Blake, Sir Henry Arthur
Blake, Sir Henry Arthur (1840–1918), police officer, resident magistrate, and colonial governor, was born 18 January 1840 in Corbally, Co. Limerick, son of Peter Blake (1809–50) of Corbally Castle, Co. Galway, county inspector of Irish Constabulary, and Jane Blake (née Lane) of…...
Blanchflower, Robert Dennis (‘Danny’)
Blanchflower, Robert Dennis (‘Danny’) (1925–93), soccer player, international manager, and journalist, was born 10 February 1925 at Dunraven Park, Bloomfield, Belfast, eldest among three sons and two daughters of John Blanchflower, shipyard craftsman, and Selina Blanchflower (née…...
Bland, John Otway Percy
Bland, John Otway Percy (1863–1945), administrator, journalist and travel writer, was born 15 November 1863 in Woodbank, Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim, second son of Maj.-gen. Edward Loftus Bland and Emma Frances Bland (née Franks) of Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny. Educated in Switzerland and…...
Blanshard, Paul
Blanshard, Paul (1892–1980), journalist and author, was born 27 August 1892 at Fredericksburg, Ohio, USA, one of twin sons of Francis George Blanshard, a congregational clergyman, and his wife Emily (née Coulter), both of whom had been born in Canada. His maternal grandfather came…...
Bligh, John
Bligh, John (1617–66), customs official, was baptised on 22 February 1617, the third son of William Bligh of Plymouth. His early career is uncertain but he appears to have lived in London as a linen draper. He invested in the adventure for Irish land, purchasing shares in several…...
Blount, Charles Brooke
Blount, Charles Brooke (1563–1606), 8th Baron Mountjoy and earl of Devonshire , soldier and administrator, was second son of James Blount (1532/3–1581), 6th Baron Mountjoy, of Canford near Poole, Dorset, and his wife Catherine (née Lee/Leigh; d. 1576) of St Oswald's, Yorkshire.…...
Bodkin, Matthias McDonnell
Bodkin, Matthias McDonnell (1849–1933), journalist and lawyer, was born in October 1849 at Tuam, Co. Galway, younger son among five children of Thomas Bodkin (c.1799–1886), doctor and FRCSI, and Maria…...
Boisseleau, Alexandre de Rainier de Droué
Boisseleau, Alexandre de Rainier de Droué (c.1650–1698), marquis of Boisseleau , French major-general and governor of Limerick, was not yet 40 at the time of his appointment to command the besieged Jacobite forces in Limerick, but had spent most of his life in the French…...
Boland, Frederick H.
Boland, Frederick H. (1904–85), diplomat, was born 11 January 1904 in Dublin, second son of Henry Patrick Boland (qv) (later senior assistant secretary at the Department of Finance) and his wife Charlotte (née Nolan). He was educated…...
Boland, Henry Patrick
Boland, Henry Patrick (1876–1956), civil servant, was born 10 May 1876 in Clonmel, the son of Michael Boland, master of Clonmel workhouse, and his wife, Elizabeth (née Quirke). In 1895 he entered the civil service as a second division clerk. Later he served in the Treasury…...
Bonnell, James
Bonnell, James (1653–99), government official and exemplar of the pious life, was born 14 November 1653 in Genoa, Italy, only son and one of two children of Samuel Bonnell, merchant, and his wife Rebecca, daughter of Thomas Sayer of Norwich, England. Samuel's grandfather had…...
Boon, John
Boon, John (1859–1928), journalist, was born at Clontarf, Dublin, on 8 June 1859, the eldest son of Andrew Boon and Sophie (née Léon), and was educated at a lycée in Bordeaux, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and in Rome and Madrid. In 1880 he began contributing to the English and French…...
Booth, Arthur James Conry
Booth, Arthur James Conry (1891–1926), satirist and cartoonist, was born 24 September 1891 in Dublin, youngest among four children of James Booth, of the Dublin port and docks board, and Helen Booth (née Duggan) of 34 Belgrave Square, Rathmines, Co. Dublin. The Booth family, who had…...
Bossence, Louis Ralph (‘Bud’)
Bossence, Louis Ralph (‘Bud’) (1915–71), journalist, was born 6 February 1915 in Belfast, only son of Stephen Bossence, shipyard worker and motor manufacturer employee, and Annie Bossence (née Frost). He emigrated to America in the early 1920s when his father went to work for the…...
Boucher, Edgar William John ('Billy')
Boucher, Edgar William John ('Billy') (1918–2003), musician and broadcaster, was born 5 December 1918 in Dublin, the son of George Alexander Boucher, a plumber, and his wife Sarah Maria (née Jones), a dressmaker; he had two older brothers and two or three older sisters. The family…...
Bouhéreau, Élie (Elias)
Bouhéreau, Élie (Elias) (1643–1719), huguenot bibliophile, librarian, cleric, diarist, and administrator, was born 5 May 1643 at La Rochelle, France, son of Élie Bouhéreau, pastor of Fontenay, and Blandine Bouhéreau (née Richard). The family was of the upper middle class. He was…...
Bourchier, James David
Bourchier, James David (1850–1920), journalist and Balkan intermediary, was born 18 December 1850 at Baggotstown, Bruff, Co. Limerick, fourth son among six children of John Bourchier, landowner and JP of Baggotstown, and Sarah Bourchier (…...
Bourke, Fergus (Ignatius)
Bourke, Fergus (Ignatius) (1934–2004), photographer, was born 31 July 1934 in Bray, Co. Wicklow. His mother was Eileen (Eibhlín) Bourke (née Somers). His father Thomas Bourke (Tómas de Búrca), who worked for Dublin Corporation, was related to people prominent in twentieth‑century…...
Bourke, Patrick
Bourke, Patrick (1899–1982), civil servant and banker, was born 24 August 1899 in Castleconnell, Co. Limerick, third child and elder son of the five children of James Bourke, grocer and publican, and his wife Hanora. In 1906 the family moved to Oxmantown Road, Dublin, in…...
Bourke, Toby (‘Don Tobias’)
Bourke, Toby (‘Don Tobias’) (1675–1742), Baron Bourke , courtier and diplomat, was born at Farranatlaba, barony of Shanid, Co. Limerick, son of Richard Bourke and his wife Silena O'Brien. In 1688, at the age of 13, he travelled to the University of Bordeaux, where an Irish college…...
Boyce, James
Boyce, James (1909–66), actor and broadcaster, was born on 17 March 1909 in Belfast, the oldest of three sons of Hugh Boyce, a coachbuilder, and his wife Ellen (née Hayes), a dressmaker before marriage. The family, who were Christian Brethren in religion, lived in Rosebury Road, Ormeau…...
Boyd, Ernest Augustus
Boyd, Ernest Augustus (1887–1946), writer, journalist, and literary critic, was born 28 June 1887 at Westbury Terrace, Dublin, the son of James Robert Boyd, a civil servant, and Rose Boyd (née Kempston). Educated privately by a French tutor and later at schools in Germany and…...
Boyd, Hugh Macauley
Boyd, Hugh Macauley (1746–94), political essayist and journalist, was born 6 or 16 April (or October) 1746 in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, or Ship St., Dublin, second son among two sons and two daughters of Alexander Macauley (McAuley) (d. 1766) of Dublin and Glenville, Co. Antrim, MP…...
Boyd, John
Boyd, John (1912–2002), radio producer and playwright, was born 19 July 1912 at 9 Baskin Street, in a working-class area of east Belfast, the first of three children (two boys and a girl) of Robert Boyd, a fireman on steam engines and later an engine driver, and Jane Boyd (née Leeman).…...