Aiken, Francis Thomas (‘Frank’)
Aiken, Francis Thomas (‘Frank’) (1898–1983), farmer, revolutionary, and politician, was born 13 February 1898 in Carrickbracken, Camlough, Co. Armagh, seventh child and youngest son of James Aiken, farmer and builder from Co. Tyrone, and Mary Aiken (née McGeeney), of Corromannon,…...
Ainsworth, Sir John Francis
Ainsworth, Sir John Francis (1912–81), 3rd baronet, palaeographer, and archivist, was born 4 January 1912 in London, the only son of Thomas Ainsworth, later 2nd baronet, a racehorse breeder and master of various packs of foxhounds in Ireland, and his first wife, Edina Dorothy Hope (…...
Aldworth, Elizabeth
Aldworth, Elizabeth (1692/5?–1772?), freemason, was born probably in Doneraile, Co. Cork, daughter of Arthur St Leger , 1st Viscount Doneraile (1703), and his wife Elizabeth, heir of John Hayes. Around 1710 she accidentally overheard a masonic lodge meeting in Doneraile Castle, and…...
Anderson, John
Anderson, John (1815–1905), woollen merchant, geologist, bibliographer, and local politician, was born 8 July 1815 near Coleraine, Co. Londonderry. After moving to Belfast he entered (1840) the woollen business in Donegall St. founded by James Young in 1795. Anderson's eminence…...
Anderson, Mark Louden
Anderson, Mark Louden (1895–1961), forester, was born 16 April 1895, son of the Rev. J. C. Anderson and Jeanie Anderson (née Boyd), of Kinneff, Scotland. His university career was interrupted by service in the British army (1914–19), where he won an MC…...
Anderson, Robert Andrew
Anderson, Robert Andrew (1860–1942), agriculturist, was born in June 1860 at Mount Corbet, Buttevant, Co. Cork, where his parents, Andrew Anderson, a Scot, and his Canadian wife, settled in 1851. He began work as a petty sessions clerk at Doneraile and became sub-agent to the local…...
Annesley, Hugh
Annesley, Hugh (1831–1908), 5th earl of Annesley , horticulturist, and politician, was born 26 January 1831 in Dublin, second son of William Richard Annesley (1772–1838), 3rd earl and MP for Downpatrick (1815–20), and his second wife, Priscilla Cecilia (d. 1891), daughter of Hugh…...
Archer, William
Archer, William (1827–97), naturalist and librarian, was born 6 May 1827 (some sources have 1830), the eldest son of Richard Archer (1796?–1849), perpetual curate of Maghera hamlet, Co. Down, and his wife, Jane Matilda (née Campbell). Nothing is known of his education, though his…...
Baker, John Wynn
Baker, John Wynn (1726/7–1775), agricultural improver, was born in New York but lived in Lancashire until about 1761, when he settled in Ireland. In 1763 he took a farm at Loughlinstown, near Celbridge, Co. Kildare. He was the author of several pamphlets, the first of which, …...
Balfe, John Donnellan
Balfe, John Donnellan (1816–80), politician, journalist, and British government spy, was born in Co. Meath, son of James Balfe, gentleman, and Sara Balfe (née Sutherland). He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, and had a brief career in the British army, joining…...
Barbour, Harold Adrian Milne
Barbour, Harold Adrian Milne (1874–1938), promoter of agricultural improvement, was born in July 1874, probably at Dunmurry, Co. Antrim, the son of John Doherty Barbour (1823–1901), a linen manufacturer, and his wife, Elizabeth. He was educated in England (at Elstree, Harrow and…...
Barry, Katty
Barry, Katty (1909–82), restaurateur and famous Cork character, was born on Dalton's Avenue, off the Coal Quay, Cork, daughter of John Barry. Her mother ran a provisions shop on Dalton's Avenue, which Katty took over and turned into an eating house. Beautiful, witty, earthy, and…...
Barry, Richard
Barry, Richard (1769–93), 7th earl of Barrymore , spendthrift, was born in London on 14 August 1769 and succeeded his father, Richard, to the Irish earldom of Barrymore just before his fourth birthday. In his youth he became excessively interested in racehorses, gambling,…...
Barton, Frederick (Derick)
Barton, Frederick (Derick) (1900–93), athlete, farmer, and political activist, was born in London on 19 June 1900, the eldest son of Bertram Hugh Barton and his wife, Lilian (née Carden). The Barton family had lived in Ireland since Elizabethan times and built Straffan House, Co.…...
Barton, Hugh
Barton, Hugh (1766–1854), wine merchant and vineyard owner, grandson of Thomas Barton (qv) and fourth of six sons of William Barton (1723–92) of Grove, Fethard, Co. Tipperary, and his wife, Grace, was born on 8 January 1766 in Limerick at…...
Barton, Robert Childers
Barton, Robert Childers (1881–1975), agriculturist and revolutionary, was born 14 March 1881, eldest son of Charles William Barton, DL, landowner, of Glendalough House, Annamoe, Co. Wicklow, and Agnes Alexandra Frances, fourth daughter of the…...
Behan, Brian Finbar Oliver Plunkett
Behan, Brian Finbar Oliver Plunkett (1926–2002), writer, radical, and bohemian, was born Brian Desmond Behan (the name appearing on the birth certificate) on 10 November 1926 in the Rotunda hospital, Dublin, while the family were residing at 14 Russell St., the third of five children of…...
Bell, John
Bell, John (c.1793–1861), antiquary, collector, and landscape painter, was the second son of John Bell, gentleman landowner, of Camelon, near Falkirk, Scotland. It is unclear when he settled in Ireland, but he was contributing articles to local newspapers in Newry, Co. Down…...
Bell, Laura Eliza Jane Seymour
Bell, Laura Eliza Jane Seymour (1829?–1894), celebrated beauty, was daughter of Robert Bell of Bellbrook, near Glenavy, Co. Antrim, bailiff for the Hertford estate, and locally prominent. In later life she claimed that her mother was Laura Jane Seymour, an illegitimate daughter of…...
Bennett, Thomas William Westropp
Bennett, Thomas William Westropp (1867–1962), farmer and politician, was born on 30 January 1867, the eldest son (and second of five children) of Captain Thomas Westropp Bennett, of Ballymurphy, Patrickswell, Co. Limerick, and Anne Bennett (née Fitzgerald), of Loughgur, Bruff, Co…...
Best, Richard Irvine
Best, Richard Irvine (1872–1959), Celticist and librarian, was born 17 January 1872 at 3 Bishop Street, Derry, son of Henry Best, excise officer, and his wife Margaret Jane (née Irvine), and educated locally at Foyle College. He did not attend university but worked briefly in banking…...
Betham, Sir William
Betham, Sir William (1779–1853), archivist and scholar, was born 22 May 1779 at Stradbrooke, Suffolk, eldest surviving son among fourteen children of William Betham (d. 1839), clergyman and antiquary, and Mary Betham (née Damant). He was apprenticed to a printer, was employed to revise…...
Bielenberg, Peter
This is a co-subject for the entry on Bielenberg, Christabel Mary Harmsworth. View the original entry....
Blacker, William
Blacker, William (1776–1850), land agent and agricultural writer, was born in 1776, probably in Co. Down, the third of four sons of St John Blacker, a clergyman who was then curate at Kilbroney, and his wife Grace, daughter of Maxwell Close of Elm Park, Co. Armagh. He became land…...
Blackwood, Lady Caroline Maureen
Blackwood, Lady Caroline Maureen (1931–96), writer and muse, was born in Hans Crescent, London, on 16 July 1931, eldest of the three children of Basil Sheridan Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood (1909–45), 8th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye, 4th Marquess Dufferin and Ava, and his wife, Maureen…...