Aiken, Jim
Aiken, Jim (1932–2007), music promoter and businessman, was one of seven or eight children born to Joseph Aiken and his wife Annie (née Fagan), and was raised on the family farm in Jonesborough, Co. Armagh, close to the border. After completing his secondary education, he studied…...
Allen, Thomas
Allen, Thomas (d. 1634), merchant, was second son among three sons and two daughters of Edward Allen of Kilteel, Co. Dublin, and his wife Ales, daughter of Alderman Giles Allen of Dublin; his paternal grandfather, Thomas Alen, from Norfolk, had settled in Ireland in the 1530s…...
Altman, Albert Liebes Lascar
Altman, Albert Liebes Lascar (c.1853–1903), businessman and nationalist politician, was born c.1853 in Prussian Poland, the son of Moritz Altman (born Shagra Moshe ben Aharon) and his wife Deborah (born Devorah bat Chaim Liebes). He was the eldest of four surviving…...
Alton, Bryan Gerard
Alton, Bryan Gerard (1919–91), physician, politician and goldsmith, was born in Dublin on 5 June 1919, the only child of Norman Bindon Alton, bank inspector, and his wife, Mary Frances (née Hayes). The family lived at 119 Morehampton Road until his father died in 1925. Bryan and his…...
Anderson, Gerry
Anderson, Gerry (1944–2014), musician, radio broadcaster and television presenter, was born Gerald Michael Anderson on 28 October 1944 in Derry, one of four children (three sons and a daughter) of John Anderson, a boiler and range-fireplace fitter who had joined the anti-treaty side…...
Andrews, Christopher Stephen (‘Todd’)
Andrews, Christopher Stephen (‘Todd’) (1901–85), revolutionary, public servant, and writer, was born 6 October 1901 at 42 Summerhill, central Dublin, elder of two sons of Christopher Andrews, of Dublin, and Mary (‘Molly’) Andrews (née Moran), daughter of a…...
Andrews, Eamonn
Andrews, Eamonn (1922–87), broadcaster, was born 19 December 1922 at 11 Synge Street, Dublin, eldest among five surviving children (two sons and three daughters; another son died in infancy) of William Andrews, an ESB carpenter, and…...
Andrews, Niall Dermott
Andrews, Niall Dermott (1937–2006), politician, was born 19 August 1937, in the Stella Maris nursing home, 17 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, youngest of four sons of C. S. 'Todd' Andrews (qv), civil servant, who resided at 10…...
Archer, James
Archer, James (c.1632–c.1680), military engineer and architect, was born in Kilkenny. His early life remains obscure, but he was a royalist, left Ireland at some point, and entered the French service; he later claimed to have served six years as a…...
Archer, Patrick
Archer, Patrick (d. 1686), merchant, was fifth and youngest son of Walter Archer and Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Shee, from two of the leading families in the city of Kilkenny. Walter Archer served as mayor of Kilkenny in 1610; Patrick's older brother Henry sat as MP for the city…...
Arigho, John Edward (‘Jack’)
Arigho, John Edward (‘Jack’) (1907–99), rugby player, was born 10 July 1907 in 21 Victoria St., Dublin, second son of George Arigho and Mary Arigho (née Greene). Arigho's grandfather had emigrated to Ireland from Switzerland in the mid nineteenth century and had founded a printing…...
Arthur, Francis
Arthur, Francis (d. 1824), Limerick merchant and developer, belonged to a long-established catholic patrician family in that city. His father, Patrick (1716–99), mainly an importer of wine and timber, was one of the developers of a new suburb, Newtown Pery; he built a quay on the…...
Arthur, Sir Daniel
Arthur, Sir Daniel (d. 1705), banker, was born probably in the 1620s in Co. Limerick or Co. Clare, son of Daniel Arthur, a catholic merchant, and Joan Arthur (née Arthur), presumably a kinswoman. He is known to have been a successful merchant, with property in Dublin as well…...
Ashlin, George Coppinger
Ashlin, George Coppinger (1837–1921), architect, was born 28 May 1837 at Carrigrenane House, Co. Cork, third and youngest son of four children of John Musson Ashlin, a Corkman established as a corn merchant in London, and Dorinda Maria Ashlin (née Coppinger), from an old Co. Cork…...
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…...
Ball, Nicholas
Ball, Nicholas (c.1540–1610), merchant, mayor of Dublin, and MP, was born in Dublin about 1540, the second of the three sons of Bartholomew Ball, a merchant, and his wife, Margaret (qv) (née Bermingham). He had considerable…...
Banim, John
Banim, John (1798–1842), artist, novelist, playwright, and poet, was born 3 April 1798 in Kilkenny city, the eldest son of Michael Banim (perhaps originally Bannon), farmer and shopkeeper (he sold sporting goods), and Joannah or Judith Banim (née Carroll) from near the Slieve Bloom…...
Barnes, Colm
Barnes, Colm (1919–2003), businessman, was born 13 July 1919 in the family home at 258 Falls Road, Belfast, one of eleven children of Diarmuid (Jeremiah) Barnes (d. 1960), draper, and his wife Mary Frances (née McGinely). His father sat on Belfast city council as a nationalist…...
Barran, Nicholas
Barran, Nicholas (c.1555–1613), merchant and politician, was eldest son of Edmund Barran, alderman and sheriff of Dublin, and his wife Mary, daughter of Alderman Nicholas Humphrey, mayor of Dublin (1541). Elected sheriff for the year 1590–91 and alderman in 1592, he…...
Barrett, (Denis) Cyril
Barrett, (Denis) Cyril (1925–2003), Jesuit priest, art critic and historian, and philosopher, was born Denis Barrett in Dublin on 9 May 1925 (Cyril was his name in religion). He was the son of Denis Barrett, the last assistant commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. His…...
Barrett, James Rupert Edward Boyd
Barrett, James Rupert Edward Boyd (c.1904–1976), architect, was born in Loughborough, Leicestershire, eldest of at least four sons of James Charles Boyd Barrett, electrical engineer, and Mary Jacqueline Boyd Barrett (née Robinson), and grandson of J. L.…...
Barrett, Joseph
Barrett, Joseph (1902–52), GAA footballer, was born 17 July 1902 at 67 Rock St., Tralee, Co. Kerry, seventh of ten children of John Barrett, Tralee livestock dealer, and Nora Barrett (née O'Mahony) of Ballyduff, Co. Kerry. Educated locally, at the age of 14 he took up the family…...
Barry, Anthony (‘Tony’)
Barry, Anthony (‘Tony’) (1901–83), merchant and politician, was born 7 June 1901 in Cork, eldest among eleven children of James J. Barry, tea and wine merchant of Ballyhooly, Co. Cork, and Annie Barry (née Ryan; d. February 1950). The family lived at ‘Lansdowne’, St Patrick's Hill…...
Barry, Edmond
Barry, Edmond (1837–1900), priest and antiquarian, was born 7 March 1837 in Midleton, Co. Cork, elder son and second of three children of Edmond Barry, gentleman of Birch Hill and Midleton, and Mary Anne Barry (née Murphy). He was educated in the seminary at Midleton and at St…...
Barry, James
Barry, James (1741–1806), history painter, was born 11 October 1741 in a cottage in Water Lane (latterly Seminary Road), Cork, the eldest child in a family of four boys – his brothers were Patrick, Redmond, and John – and a girl, Mary Ann. Background and early training…...