Ua Úathgaile, Dublittir
Ua Úathgaile, Dublittir (fl. c.1080–1120), author and scholar, was associated with the church of Killeshin, Co. Laois. He belonged to the Uí Bairrche. The medieval Irish genealogies preserve the name of Úathgal son of Sóergal, progenitor of the Uí Úathgaile and likely to…...
Ussher, Ambrose
Ussher, Ambrose (c.1582–1629), scholar and protestant clergyman, was born in Dublin, the second surviving son of Arland Ussher (d. 1598) and Margaret, daughter of James Stanihurst (qv). He was brother to…...
Ussher, James
Ussher, James (1581–1656), Church of Ireland archbishop of Armagh and scholar, was born 4 January 1581 in St Nicholas parish, Dublin, fifth among ten children of Arland Ussher, clerk of chancery, and his wife Margaret Stanihurst. During his long life Ussher wrote many books and…...
van Gelderen, Gerrit
van Gelderen, Gerrit (1926–94), naturalist, wildlife film-maker, broadcaster, and author, was born 26 August 1926 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, eldest child of Johannes Gerardus van Gelderen, a local-authority employee who lived within the municipal park where he worked. Familiar from…...
Virgilius Maro Grammaticus
Virgilius Maro Grammaticus (fl. c.650), an enigmatic author, was occasionally named (wrongly) in nineteenth-century scholarship ‘Virgilius of Toulouse’, and thought by some modern writers to have been either Visigothic Spanish (B. Bischoff), or British (V. Law), but he is…...
Waddell, Helen Jane
Waddell, Helen Jane (1889–1965), scholar, translator, and author, was born 31 May 1889 in Tokyo, Japan, youngest of eight sons and two daughters of Revd Hugh Waddell (1840–1901), a presbyterian missionary in Manchuria and Japan, originally from Glenarm, Co. Antrim, and Jane Waddell (née…...
Wadding, Luke
Wadding, Luke (1588–1657), Franciscan priest, scholar, and churchman, was born 16 October 1588 at Waterford and baptised on 18 October, the son of Walter Wadding, a wealthy merchant, and his wife, Anastasia (née Lombard), a relative of Peter…...
Wagner, Heinrich Hans
Wagner, Heinrich Hans (1923–88), linguistic scholar, was born 16 January 1923 in Zurich, Switzerland, elder of two sons of Heinrich Wagner, businessman, and his wife Eliza (née Siegfried), both of Zurich. His mother, the daughter of a restaurateur, spoke German (her native tongue),…...
Waldré, Vincent
Waldré, Vincent (1742–1814), history painter and architect, was born Vincenzo Valdre or Valdrati in November 1742 in Faenza, Italy, son of Carlo Valdrati, master of the wardrobe of Don Filippo, duke of Parma. The family resided in Parma, where Waldré studied with the painter…...
Walker, Alexander Alfred
Walker, Alexander Alfred (1930–2003), film critic and cinema historian, was born 22 March 1930 in Portadown, Co. Armagh, only child of Alfred Walker, commercial traveller, and his wife Ethel Linda Harris (née Andrews). The family were presbyterian, though not especially observant…...
Walker, Dorothy
Walker, Dorothy (1929–2002), writer and critic, was born 16 January 1929 at 3 Mountjoy Square, Dublin, the daughter of Walter Cole, a stallholder at the city of Dublin fruit and vegetable market, and his wife, Moira. Following her education at the Dominican convent in Wicklow (1937–46)…...
Walker, John
Walker, John (1768–1833), religious leader and classical scholar, was born in January 1768 in Co. Roscommon, son of the Rev. Matthew Walker, Church of Ireland clergyman. In January 1786 he entered TCD, being made a scholar in 1788,…...
Walker, Robin Andrew Day
Walker, Robin Andrew Day (1924–91), architect, was born 30 September 1924 at 1 Catherine Street, Waterford, eldest child of Andrew Ernest Walker, bank official, of ‘Nailima’, Bailey, Co. Dublin, and Eleanor Walker (née Croker). He was educated in Dublin at St Columba's College,…...
Wall, Mervyn Eugene Welply
Wall, Mervyn Eugene Welply (1908–97), novelist, playwright, broadcaster, and civil servant, was born 23 August 1908 at 27 Palmerston Rd, Dublin, the third eldest of three sons and one daughter of Thomas Patrick Wall, barrister, and Beatrice Agnes Wall (née Morrissey), both of Co.…...
Walsh (Bhailís, Wallis, Uailis), Francis (Proinsias)
Walsh (Bhailís, Wallis, Uailis), Francis (Proinsias) (1654–1724), lexicographer and Franciscan priest, was born in the Fingal area of north Co. Dublin. Nothing is known of his family or early education. He entered the Franciscan order and was ordained (1677) in the Irish Franciscan…...
Walsh, Dick (Richard Colman)
Walsh, Dick (Richard Colman) (1937–2003), journalist, was born in Cratloe, Co. Clare, on 29 October 1937, youngest of two sons and two daughters of Seán Walsh, principal of Cratloe National School (in succession to his own father), and his wife Pauline (née McNamara), also a teacher…...
Walsh, Joseph James
Walsh, Joseph James (1905–92), journalist and newspaper editor, was born 21 December 1905 (although he claimed to have been born exactly ten years later) in Waterford city, youngest among five children of Edward Walsh, commercial cork-maker, editor/proprietor of the Munster…...
Walsh, Michael (‘Mike’)
Walsh, Michael (‘Mike’) (1810–59), politician and newspaperman, was born 4 May 1810 in Youghal, Co. Cork, son of Michael Welsh, a protestant cabinetmaker, reputed in some sources to have been a United Irishman involved in the 1798 rising, and Eileen Welsh (née Keefe). He was brought…...
Weingreen, Jacob
Weingreen, Jacob (1908–95), Hebrew scholar, was born 21 January 1908 in Manchester, England, son of Isidore Weingreen, salesman (born in Krakow, Poland, later residing in Manchester, Belfast, Dublin, and New York) and Sarah Weingreen (née Axelrad), seamstress, born in Jassy-…...
Wejchert, Andrzej
Wejchert, Andrzej (1937–2009), architect, was born 21 May 1937 in Gdańsk, in the semi-autonomous Free City of Danzig, sandwiched between the Polish Corridor and the German province of East Prussia, son of Tadeusz Wejchert, who ran a shipping business, and Irena Wejchert (née Mojgis).…...
Wejchert, Danuta
This is a co-subject for the entry on Wejchert, Andrzej. View the original entry....
West, Robert
West, Robert (d. 1790), stuccodore and Dublin property developer, was probably born in Dublin between c.1720 and 1730. His family background and early life is unknown but it is possible that he was descended from a long line of Dublin-based builders and artisans such as…...
Wheeler, George Bomford
Wheeler, George Bomford (1805/8–1877), anglican clergyman, classical scholar, and editor of the Irish Times, was son of James Wheeler; his mother's name is unknown. Very little is known of his early life and the records of TCD…...
White, Harold R. (‘Dermot Macmurrough’)
White, Harold R. (‘Dermot Macmurrough’) (1872–1943), music journalist and composer, was born 12 January 1872 in Dublin, son of Edgar White, an engineer and surveyor. Possessed of a fine treble voice, he served as a chorister in Christ Church cathedral from 1881 to 1887 and…...
White, William John (‘Jack’)
White, William John (‘Jack’) (1920–80), broadcaster, editor, journalist, and novelist, was born 30 March 1920 in Cork, second child of William Luke White, accountant, and Mary White (née Tyler). In his book Minority report (1975) he described himself as ‘a member of a…...