Brady, Maziere
Brady, Maziere (1796–1871), lord chancellor of Ireland and patron of the arts, was born 20 July 1796 in Dublin, second of three sons of Francis Tempest Brady (1763–1821) of Willow Park, Booterstown, Co. Dublin, manufacturer of gold and silver thread, and Martha Brady (née Hodgson…...
Brenon, Edward St John (Brennan, Edward John)
Brenon, Edward St John (Brennan, Edward John) (1842/3–1916), journalist and poet, was born Edward John Brennan in Dublin, son of William Brennan, master of St Mathias's Church of Ireland school; his mother was mistress of St Mathias's girls’ school. William Brennan also acted as tutor…...
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…...
Brittaine, George
Brittaine, George (1788–1848), protestant evangelical preacher and novelist, was born in 1788 in Dublin, the son of Rev Patrick Brittain (1762–1804), curate of St James's parish from 1789 to 1804. (The spelling Brittaine was adopted by George). He entered…...
Brontë, Patrick
Brontë, Patrick (1777–1861), Church of England clergyman and writer, was born 17 March 1777, in Emdale, Drumballyroney, Co. Down, the eldest of the ten children of Hugh Prunty , or Brunty, a protestant farm labourer, and Eleanor or Alice (née McClory), born a catholic. He is known…...
Brooke, Henry
Brooke, Henry (1703–83), literary and political writer, was born in Ratavan, near Virginia, Co. Cavan, son of the Rev. William B. Brooke, wealthy rector of Killinkere and Mullagh, and Letrice Digby. His mother, possibly the second daughter of Dr…...
Brooke, Stopford Augustus
Brooke, Stopford Augustus (1832–1916), clergyman and author, was born 14 November 1832 at ‘Glendoen’, near Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, eldest of eight children of the Rev. Richard Sinclair Brooke, the local curate, and Anna Brooke (née Stopford). When his maternal grandfather and…...
Bullock, Shan Fadh (John William)
Bullock, Shan Fadh (John William) (1865–1935), author, was born 17 May 1865 at Inisherk, Co. Fermanagh, eldest son among eleven children of Thomas Bullock (1840–1917), estate steward and farmer, and his wife Mary Wheery. Thomas Bullock worked on the Crom Castle demesne of John Crichton…...
Burk, John Daly
Burk, John Daly (1772?–1808), author and radical, was possibly the son of James Burk, a protestant schoolmaster from Co. Cork, who may have been related to Edmund Burke (qv) (Augusta Chronicle, 11 Nov. 1809). In 1790 John was…...
Butler (Thompson), Elizabeth
Butler (Thompson), Elizabeth (1846–1933), Lady Butler , military painter, was born 3 November 1846 at the Villa Claremont, near Lausanne, Switzerland, the elder daughter of Thomas James Thompson and Christiana Thompson (née Weller). The Thompsons were cosmopolitan in outlook,…...
Canning, George
Canning, George (1730?–71), writer, was eldest of three sons of Stratford Canning, who had an estate at Garvagh, Co. Londonderry, and his wife Letitia Newburgh. It is said that his father was ferociously strict; he disapproved of a youthful love affair in which George was involved…...
Carleton, William
Carleton, William (1794–1869), novelist and short-story writer, was born, probably on 4 March 1794, in Prillisk, near Clogher, Co. Tyrone, the youngest of fourteen children (eight of whom survived) of James Carleton, a catholic tenant farmer, and his wife Mary Kelly. James Carleton…...
Carney, Sir Richard
Carney, Sir Richard (d. 1692?), herald and painter, is said by Strickland to have been the son of Edward Carney, a Dublin tailor, and to have been appointed a herald in 1652 and principal herald of arms in Ireland in 1655. He was certainly the Richard Carney who was appointed…...
Cary (Tanfield), Elizabeth
Cary (Tanfield), Elizabeth (1585–1639), Viscountess Falkland , writer and translator, was born at Burford Priory, Oxfordshire, the only child and heir of Lawrence Tanfield (c.1551–1625), a wealthy lawyer, later appointed chief baron of the exchequer, and his wife,…...
Chaigneau, William
Chaigneau, William (1709–81), army agent and novelist, was born 23 December 1709 at Back Key, Dublin, and baptised at St John's, Dublin, on Christmas eve, second son among thirteen children of John Chaigneau, vintner, and Margaret Chaigneau (née Martyr), both of Dublin and of huguenot…...
Chatterton, (Henrietta) Georgiana
Chatterton, (Henrietta) Georgiana (1806–76), writer, was born 11 November 1806 at 24 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London, the only child of the Rev. Lascelles Iremonger , prebendary of Winchester cathedral, and Harriet, sister of Admiral Lord Gambier. Educated primarily by a…...
Chetwood, Anna Maria
Chetwood, Anna Maria (1774–1870), writer, was born on 7 February 1774, a daughter of the Rev. John Chetwood of Glanmire, Co. Cork (1742–1814), and Elizabeth Chetwood (née Hamilton) (d. 1826?), and great-granddaughter of Knightley Chetwood of Woodbrook, Portarlington, a friend of…...
Clancy, Michael
Clancy, Michael (c.1704–1776), writer, was born in Co. Clare, son of Daniel Clancy, a soldier (or possibly a doctor) and a man of letters. His life, as recounted in his Memoirs (an incomplete and somewhat fanciful account), is dedicated to the earl of Kildare. He…...
Clark, Wallace
Clark, Wallace (1926–2011), yachtsman, writer and businessman, was born in Upperlands, Co. Derry, on 20 November 1926, one of three children, two boys and a girl, of Harry Francis Clark, of Rockwood in Upperlands, and his wife Sybil Emily (née Stuart). His father was a director and…...
Clements, Nathaniel
Clements, Nathaniel (1705–77), treasury official, property developer, architect, and MP, was third of four surviving sons of Robert Clements (1664–1722), landowner, of Rathkenny, Co. Cavan, and Abbotstown, Co. Dublin, and his wife Elizabeth (d. 1742), daughter of…...
Collis, Peter
Collis, Peter (1929–2012), artist, was born in London on 16 November 1929, the son of Herbert Collis, an architect, and Phyllis Collis (née Clark). Growing up in Guildford, Surrey, and later at Esher, Surrey, he received a formal academic training in oil painting at Epsom College (…...
Comyn, Michael (Micheál Coimín)
Comyn, Michael (Micheál Coimín) (c.1680–1760), prose writer and poet in Irish, was son of Patrick Óg Comyn, farmer of Kilcorcoran, Co. Clare, and Joanna Comyn (née Fitzgerald). Michael's grandfather lost a substantial freehold in five townlands of Kimacrehy parish during…...
Congreve, William
Congreve, William (1670–1729), playwright and poet, was born 24 January 1670 at Bardsley, Yorkshire, the son of William Congreve (1637–1708), an army officer, and Mary Browning (d. 1715) of Doncaster. In 1674 his father gained a commission as lieutenant in the army in Ireland, and…...
Conolly, Thurloe
Conolly, Thurloe (1918–2016), artist, was born in Cork city on 21 July 1918, the younger of two sons to William Joseph Conolly, a structural engineer, and his wife Constance Elizabeth Conolly (née Jeffares). According to family lore, the Conollys were descended from the eighteenth-…...
Conyngham, Melosina Anne Lenox-
Conyngham, Melosina Anne Lenox- (1941–2011), traveller and writer, was born on 22 February 1941 in Ceylon (latterly, Sri Lanka). Her father, Gerald Hamilton Lenox-Conyngham, a tea planter in Wattegoda, in the south of the island, was descended from an Ulster ascendancy family and…...