Drummond, John
Drummond, John (1649–1715), earl and titular duke of Melfort , statesman, diplomat, and art connoisseur, was second son of James, 3rd earl of Perth, and his wife Anne, eldest daughter of the 2nd marquis of Huntly. His elder brother, James, became 4th earl of Perth. Drummond's…...
Duff, Thomas
Duff, Thomas (c.1792–1848), architect, was born in Newry, Co. Down. Nothing is known of his parentage and early life, except that he was a catholic. It is possible that he was the ‘Thomas Duffe’ who won a prize at the Dublin Society (1805) for an architectural design. It…...
Duffy, Bernard Joseph
Duffy, Bernard Joseph (1882–1952), barrister, playwright, and novelist, was born 19 June 1882 at Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan, son of James Joseph Duffy, general merchant, and Mary Anne (Maryann) née McEntagart. Educated at Viscount Weymouth Grammar School, Carrickmacross, and…...
Duffy, George Gavan
Duffy, George Gavan (1882–1951), politician and judge, was born 21 October 1882 at Rose Cottage, Rock Ferry, Cheshire, the eldest son of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (qv), nationalist politician and premier of Victoria, Australia (1871…...
Duffy, Patrick Aloyisius
Duffy, Patrick Aloyisius (1933–95), politician and solicitor, was born 19 July 1933 in the parish of Ardboe, Co. Tyrone, one of four sons and a daughter of Patrick Duffy, farmer and local councillor on Cookstown rural council, and Margaret Duffy (née Devlin). He was educated at…...
Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan
Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan (1816–1903), politician and journalist, was born in Monaghan town on 12 April 1816, the sixth and youngest child of John Duffy (d. 1827), a shopkeeper and former United Irishman, and his wife, Anne (née Gavan). Formative years After the premature deaths of his…...
Dungan (Dongan), Thomas
Dungan (Dongan), Thomas (1590?–1663), lawyer and judge, was fourth son of John Dungan of Castletown, Co. Kildare, second remembrancer of the exchequer and an important figure in the Irish administration, and his wife Margaret, daughter of Walter Forster. Thomas's parents died…...
Edwards, Robert (‘Robin’) Walter Dudley
Edwards, Robert (‘Robin’) Walter Dudley (1909–88), historian, was born 4 June 1909 in Dublin, elder son of Walter Edwards (1862–1946), a minor civil servant from Worcestershire, England, and Bridget Teresa McInerney (1871–1956), a nurse from Co. Clare. When his parents, a quaker and a…...
Esmonde, John Henry Grattan
This is a co-subject for the entry on Esmonde, Sir John Lymbrick. View the original entry....
Esmonde, Sir John Lymbrick
Esmonde, Sir John Lymbrick (1893–1958), 14th baronet, barrister, landowner, and politician, was born 15 December 1893 at Ingleside, Pontesbury, Salop (Shropshire), England, eldest among three sons and three daughters of John Joseph Esmonde (1862–1915), a medical doctor who practised for…...
Everard, Sir John
Everard, Sir John (c.1560–1624), lawyer and parliamentarian, was the elder son of Sir Redmond Everard of Ballyboy and Fethard, a prominent landowner in Tipperary and MP for Cross Tipperary (1585). Redmond's younger son, James, was a Jesuit, based in Callan from 1608 (…...
Farrell, Micheal
Farrell, Micheal (1940–2000), painter and print-maker, was born 3 July 1940 at Cookstown House, near Ceanannus Mór (Kells), Co. Meath, one of two sons and two daughters of James Farrell, farmer and rugby player with Bective Rangers, and Nora Farrell (née Folwell). He began his…...
Fawsitt, Diarmuid (Jeremiah)
Fawsitt, Diarmuid (Jeremiah) (1884–1967), nationalist, civil servant and judge, was born Jeremiah Fawsitt 7 May 1884 at Ballymacthomas, Cork, son of Boyle Fawsitt, labourer of Ballymacthomas, and Hannah Fawsitt (née Lucey). From relative poverty his father established a mercantile…...
Ferguson, Vincent
Ferguson, Vincent, (1931–2007), businessman and art collector, was born in the family home in Teeling Street, Sligo town, on 21 June 1931, the son of John Ferguson, printer, and his wife Mary (née McGarry). His mother died when he was five, leaving five boys and two girls. The family…...
Ferris, Richard
Ferris, Richard (1754–1828), priest and adventurer, was born 10 February 1754 at Ballymalis, near Killarney, Co. Kerry, youngest among four sons of Daniel Ferris, tenant farmer; his mother was a Hassett, apparently a protestant. His brothers emigrated to France, where one, Edward…...
Finaghty, James
Finaghty, James (1614–p.1671), catholic priest and faith healer, was attached to the diocese of Elphin. During the confederate period in the 1640s, he was a supporter of the papal nuncio, Rinuccini (qv). Utilising the…...
Finucane, Patrick
Finucane, Patrick (1950–89), solicitor and republican, was born in Belfast, eldest of eight children (seven boys and one girl) of Patrick Finucane, flour-mill worker, and his wife, Kathleen. He was educated at St Mary's Christian Brothers’ grammar school, St Malachy's College,…...
Fitton, Sir Alexander
Fitton, Sir Alexander (1635/6–1699), Baron Fytton , lord chancellor, was the eldest surviving son of William Fitton of Gawsworth in Cheshire. His great-grandfather Sir Edward Fitton (qv) was a high-ranking Tudor official in…...
FitzGerald, Alexis James Oliver
FitzGerald, Alexis James Oliver (1916–85), solicitor and economist, was born 4 September 1916, the fourth child of Alexis FitzGerald and his wife, Elizabeth O'Halloran. He was born, as he would later say himself, ‘under the clock’ in the Waterford Mental Hospital, where his father was…...
FitzGerald, Desmond
FitzGerald, Desmond (1911–87), architect, was born 5 November 1911 at Saint-Jean-du-Doigt (Finisterre) in Brittany, France, eldest of four sons of Desmond FitzGerald (qv), writer and future minister for external affairs in…...
Fitzgerald, John
Fitzgerald, John (1825–1910), poet, painter, antiquary, and wood-carver, was born 18 June 1825 at Hanover Street, Cork, son of John Fitzgerald and Martha Mary Deacy. He was educated at Fr Mathew's (qv) school, Blackamoor Lane, and…...
Fitzgerald, John David
Fitzgerald, John David (1816–89), Baron Fitzgerald , Irish law officer and British lord of appeal, was born 1 May 1816 in Co. Limerick, second son of David Fitzgerald, a merchant from Dublin who was believed to have taken part in the abortive rising of…...
FitzGerald, William O'Brien (‘Billy’)
FitzGerald, William O'Brien (‘Billy’) (1906–74), barrister and judge, was born 26 March 1906 in Cork. His mother, Mary Frances Dormon, was married first to William Dwyer, and then, after Dwyer's death, to William FitzGerald who was clerk of the crown and peace in Mallow; the…...
Fitzgibbon, John
Fitzgibbon, John (1708?–1780), barrister and politician, was born probably in 1708, the first of the four sons of Thomas Fitzgibbon of Ballyseeda, Co. Limerick, and his wife, Honor, a daughter of William Hayes of Cahirguillamore, Co. Limerick. Thomas Fitzgibbon, whose father,…...
Fitzgibbon, Theodora
Fitzgibbon, Theodora (1916–91), cookery expert and writer, was born Joan Eileen Rosling on 21 October 1916 in London, the only child of Adam Rosling, motor engineer with the Royal Naval Air Service, and Alice Winifred Rosling (née Hodgkins). Her parents were divorced soon after…...