Fitzwilliam, Oliver
Fitzwilliam, Oliver (d. 1667), 2nd Viscount Merrion and earl of Tyrconnell , landowner and army officer, was the eldest son of Thomas Fitzwilliam, 1st Viscount Merrion, and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Oliver Plunkett, fourth Baron Louth. The Fitzwilliams were an important…...
Flanagan, Edward Joseph
Flanagan, Edward Joseph (1886–1948), catholic priest and founder of Boys Town, was born 13 July 1886 at Ballymoe, Co. Roscommon, son of John Flanagan, herdsman, and Nora Flanagan (née Larkin). One of eleven children, he was first educated at a local school, Drimatample, and…...
Flanagan, Terence Philip ('T. P.'; 'Terry')
Flanagan, Terence Philip ('T. P.'; 'Terry') (1929–2011), painter, was born 15 August 1929 at 18 The Hollow, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, the eldest among four sons and three daughters of William Flanagan and his wife Margaret (née Maguire). His father held a series of clerical jobs in…...
Flannery, Austin
Flannery, Austin (1925–2008), priest, scholar, editor, journalist and social justice campaigner, was born William ('Liam') Flannery on 10 January 1925 at Rear Cross, Co. Tipperary, the eldest of seven children of William K. Flannery and his wife Margaret Flannery (née Butler),…...
Flood, Finbarr
Flood, Finbarr (1938–2016), soccer player, managing director of Guinness brewery and chairman of the Labour Court, was born on 1 December 1938 in Kilmainham, Dublin, one of three children (and only son) to Jack Flood, a worker in Guinness, and his wife Eva Flood (née…...
Fogarty, Michael
Fogarty, Michael (1859–1955), catholic bishop of Killaloe, was born 11 October 1859 in Kilcolman near Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. He had one brother, Daniel, who also became a priest. Fogarty was educated at St Flannan's College in Ennis and later Maynooth College, where he was…...
Frankau, Julia (‘Frank Danby’)
Frankau, Julia (‘Frank Danby’) (1859–1916), art historian and novelist, was born 30 July 1859 in Dublin, into an English Jewish family, seventh among nine children of Hyman Davis (d. 1871), dentist and later artist/photographer, and his wife Isabella. Her parents arrived in Dublin in…...
Fuller, Stephen
Fuller, Stephen (1899–84), farmer, political activist and survivor of the 1923 Ballyseedy massacre, was born on 25 December 1899 at Fahavane, a hamlet just outside the village of Kilflynn, north of Tralee, Co. Kerry. The eldest child of Daniel Fuller, ‘an extensive farmer’, (…...
Furlong, George Joseph
Furlong, George Joseph (1898–1987), art historian and gallery director, was born 1 February 1898 in Dundrum, seven miles north-west of Cashel, Co. Tipperary, son of Michael Furlong, hotel proprietor, and Kate Mary Furlong (née Bourke). Although he was orphaned at 9, the family…...
Gaj, Margaret (née Dunlop)
Gaj, Margaret (née Dunlop) (1919–2011), restaurateur, radical, and political activist, was born on 28 January 1919 in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of four children (two girls and two boys) of James Aloysius Dunlop and his wife Ellen (née O'Malley). Both parents were catholics of Irish…...
Gallagher, Denis (Ó Gallchóir, Donncha)
Gallagher, Denis (Ó Gallchóir, Donncha) (1922–2001), government minister and community activist, was born 29 December 1922 in Currane, within the parish, though not the island, of Achill, Co. Mayo, the son of John Gallagher, merchant, of Currane, and his wife Catherine (née Gallagher).…...
Gibney, (John) Arthur
Gibney, (John) Arthur (1931–2006), architect, was born 6 August 1931 in the Rotunda hospital, Dublin, the only child of John Gibney, a dentist, of 8 Orchard Road, off Clonliffe Road, Dublin, and his wife Margaret (née Green). After attending St Joseph's…...
Gifford, Grace (Evelyn)
Gifford, Grace (Evelyn) (1888–1955), cartoonist and republican, was born 4 March 1888 at 8 Temple Villas, Palmerston Park, Rathmines, Dublin, one of twelve children of Frederick Gifford, a wealthy solicitor, and Isabella Gifford (née Burton), a niece of the artist Sir…...
Glenn, Alice
Glenn, Alice (1921–2011), politician and moral crusader, was born Alicia Duffy on 17 December 1921 in Usher's Quay, Dublin, the eldest of ten children of (Arthur) Leo Duffy, a car mechanic, and his wife Mary (née Joyce), a dressmaker. Descended from generations of Dublin artisans on…...
Glucksman, Lewis
Glucksman, Lewis (1925–2006), philanthropist and businessman, was born 22 December 1925 in New York, the second of three children of Jack Glucksman, owner of a factory that manufactured table lamps, and his wife Zipporah. His parents were second-generation Hungarian Jews. Raised in…...
Glynn, Sir Joseph
Glynn, Sir Joseph (1869–1951), catholic social activist and writer, was born 25 April 1869, at The Square, Gort, Co. Galway, the second son of John McMahon Glynn, merchant, and Ellen Glynn (née Walsh). He was educated at Blackrock College, Dublin, graduating…...
Goldie, George
Goldie, George (1828–81), architect, was born in York, England, on 8 June 1828, the son of a medical doctor, George Goldie, and his wife Mary Anne, the second daughter of Joseph Bonomi the younger, an architect and Egyptologist. His great-grandfather was the Italian architect Joseph…...
Gordon, Maurice Leonard (‘Maurie’)
Gordon, Maurice Leonard (‘Maurie’) (1910–90), sports administrator, businessman, and community activist, was born 10 January 1910 in Leeds, England, only son and elder of two children of Joseph Gordon (originally Seltzer), textile worker from Russia, and Bessie Gordon (née Bellow…...
Gorman, Sir John Reginald
Gorman, (Sir) John Reginald (1923–2014), soldier, policeman, businessman, civil servant and politician, was born on 1 February 1923 at Mullaghmore House, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, the eldest of four children of Major John Kearney (Jack) Gorman (1891–1980), an RUC officer, and his…...
Goulding, Valerie
Goulding, Valerie (1918–2003), philanthropist and senator, was born Valerie Hamilton Monckton on 12 September 1918 in Kent, younger of two children (she had an elder brother) of Walter Monckton, barrister (later a confidant of King Edward VIII and afterwards a conservative cabinet…...
Goulet, Yann Renard-
Goulet, Yann Renard- (1914–99), artist and sculptor, was born Jean Gustave Réné Goulet on 20 August 1914 at Saint-Nazaire, Brittany, France, son of Gustave Goulet, hotelier and chef. After being educated locally he began studying architecture before winning a scholarship to the…...
Grace, Richard
Grace, Richard (c.1620–1691), royalist and Jacobite governor of Athlone, was a younger son of Robert Grace, baron of Courtstown, Co. Kilkenny; nothing is known of his mother. Recommended to Charles I by James Butler (qv),…...
Gregory, Tony
Gregory, Tony (1947–2009), republican socialist, community activist and TD, was born 5 December 1947 in Dublin, the second of two sons of Anthony Gregory and his wife Ellen (née Judge). A native of Dublin's North Strand, Anthony Gregory had owned a shoemaker's business in Ballybough in…...
Grogan, Vincent Benedict
Grogan, Vincent Benedict (1915–97), parliamentary draftsman and philanthropist, was born 10 April 1915 in Dublin, the only son of Capt. Vincent Grogan of Lytham-St Anne's, Lancashire, and Eleanor Grogan (née Kirwan). He began his education at the O'Connell schools in Dublin and…...
Hamilton, Anthony (Antoine)
Hamilton, Anthony (Antoine) (1646?–1720), Jacobite, soldier and man of letters, was probably born in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, third son of Sir George Hamilton and his wife Mary Butler, third daughter of Thomas, Viscount Thurles, and a sister of…...