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…...
Algar, Joseph
Algar, Joseph (1890–1958), chemist, was born 15 April 1890 at 22 Arnott St, Dublin, eldest of eight children of Herbert Okell Algar, originally from Warwickshire, and Celia Algar (née Kelly) from Dublin. His father, who converted to catholicism on his marriage, was a master tailor…...
Allan, Frederick James (‘Fred’)
Allan, Frederick James (‘Fred’) (1861–1937), Fenian, journalist and civil servant, was born 15 June 1861 in Dublin, the third son of William Gartley Allan (d. 1881?), a clerk in the accounts department of the Board of Public Works (until 1873), and his wife Ellen Batty (née Quince…...
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…...
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, 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…...
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…...
Aston, Ernest Albert
Aston, Ernest Albert (1873–1949), journalist and urban planner, was born 6 October 1873 in Dublin, eldest of at least three sons and a daughter of Thomas J. Aston, book-keeper, and Jane Hawkshaw Aston (née Bennett). After education at Wesley College and training as an engineer, he…...
Atkins, Henry St John
Atkins, Henry St John (1896–1987), president of UCC, was born in Cork on 19 March 1896, son of Patrick Atkins and Agnes Atkins (née Egan); he was educated at North Monastery school in Cork, and graduated…...
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, John
Ball, John (1818–89), scientist, politician, and mountain traveller, was born 20 August 1818 in Dublin, eldest son among four children of Nicholas Ball (qv), politician and judge, and Jane Ball (neé Sherlock) of Butlerstown, Co.…...
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…...
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, 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.…...
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, Michael Joseph
Barry, Michael Joseph (1817–89), Young Irelander, poet, and journalist, was born 26 March 1817 in Blackrock, Cork city, eldest among five children of Michael Joseph Barry, a catholic merchant, and his wife Anne (née England). John England (qv…...
Barry, Vincent Christopher
Barry, Vincent Christopher (1908–75), chemist, was born at Cork on 17 May 1908, the youngest in the family of seven sons and four daughters of a post office official, James Barry, and his wife, Agnes (née Stack), daughter of a small businessman. After a schooling by the Christian…...
Béaslaí, Piaras
Béaslaí, Piaras (1881–1965), writer, revolutionary, politician, language revivalist, and journalist, was born Percy (later Pierce , Piaras) Beazley on 15 February 1881 in Liverpool, England, second of three sons of Patrick Langford Beazley, editor of the Catholic Times from…...