Clancy, Patrick
Clancy, Patrick (1877–1947), trade unionist, revolutionary, and politician, was born 17 March 1877 in the family home at Grange, Bruff, Co. Limerick, second child in the large family of John Clancy (d. 1935), carpenter, of Doneraile, Co. Cork and Bridget Clancy (née Farrell) (d.…...
Clarendon, Frederick Villiers
Clarendon, Frederick Villiers (c.1820–1904), architect and civil engineer, was born in Dublin, one of several sons of Thomas Clarendon (fl. 1800–20), linen draper, of Westmoreland St., and estate developer. Nothing is known of his mother. He entered…...
Clarke, Desmond
Clarke, Desmond (1907–79), librarian, historian, and writer, was born 2 July 1907 in Dublin, eldest son of John Clarke and Marcella Clarke (née Shaw). His entire career was with the RDS library, which he joined as an assistant in 1925. In…...
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…...
Clery, William Edward
Clery, William Edward (c.1861–1931), writer and trade unionist, was born in Ireland in 1861 or 1862, son of John and Helen Clery. In 1877 he emigrated with his parents to London, penniless, and in 1878 entered the civil service, becoming a second-class inland sorter at the…...
Clifford, Mary (‘Mai’)
Clifford, Mary (‘Mai’) (née Hollingsworth ) (1913–86), trade union official and laundress, was born 25 September 1913 at Phoenix Park, Glasgow, Scotland, the elder of one daughter and one son of Joseph Hollingsworth, a blacksmith from Co. Kerry, and his wife Elizabeth, a Glasgow…...
Cluskey, Frank (Francis)
Cluskey, Frank (Francis) (1930–89), trade unionist and politician, was born 8 April 1930 at 83 St Ignatius Road, off Lower Dorset Street, Dublin, youngest of two sons and three daughters of Francis (‘Frank’) Cluskey (c.1890–1955), a butcher and active trade unionist, and…...
Coakley, Daniel John
Coakley, Daniel John (1872–1951), accountant, teacher, and town planner, was born 29 September 1872 at Donoughmore, Co. Cork, one of five sons and two daughters of John Coakley, farmer, and Mary Coakley (née Hegarty). A railway audit accountant, he was one of five candidates…...
Cobden, Thomas Alfred
Cobden, Thomas Alfred (fl. 1814–42), architect, was born in England; his family background and early life are unknown. In 1814 and 1815 he produced drawings for Gurteen le Poer house, Kilsheelan, Co. Waterford, and he exhibited designs for buildings in Ireland at the Royal…...
Cochrane, Robert
Cochrane, Robert (1844–1916), engineer, architect, and antiquarian, was born 21 July 1844 in Co. Down, eldest son of Hugh W. Cochrane, of an ancient Scottish-Danish family that came to Ireland in the seventeenth century. He graduated in engineering from…...
Colgan, Nathaniel
Colgan, Nathaniel (1851–1919), botanist, marine biologist, and traveller, was born 28 May 1851 in Dublin. The identity of his parents is not known with certainty, though they may have been Nathaniel Watson Colgan and Letitia Phair, who married in Dublin in 1846. Colgan was educated…...
Conefrey, Peter
Conefrey, Peter (1880–1939), catholic priest and social critic, was born 9 June 1880 in Mohill, Co. Leitrim, son of James Conefrey, publican, and his wife Mary McGivney. There were many priests on both sides of the family. His uncle, Fr Thomas Conefrey, parish priest of Drumlish,…...
Connolly, James
Connolly, James (1868–1916), socialist and revolutionary leader, was born in Cowgate, Edinburgh, on 5 June 1868, the youngest in a family of three boys. His father, John Connolly, and his mother, Mary McGinn, were both born in Ireland in 1833, possibly in Co. Monaghan, and emigrated to…...
Connolly, Roderic James (‘Roddy’)
Connolly, Roderic James (‘Roddy’) (1901–80), socialist, trade unionist, and politician, was born 11 February 1901 at 54 Pimlico, Dublin, only son and sixth among seven children of James Connolly (qv), native of Edinburgh, Scotland, the…...
Connolly, Sean
Connolly, Sean (1882–1916), actor, trade unionist, and republican, was born 12 April 1882 at 10 Seafort Ave., Sandymount, Dublin, third child and eldest son among eight daughters and eight sons of Michael Connolly, seaman, and Mary Connolly (née Ellis). When his father ceased seafaring…...
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-…...
Conroy, John
Conroy, John (1904–69), trade unionist, was born 17 April 1904 in Wicklow town, son of Thomas Conroy, a railway signalman, and Catherine Conroy (née McNamara). He attended national school locally before beginning work at a very early age in a fertiliser factory. Subsequently he…...
Conroy, Sheila (née Williams)
Conroy, Sheila (née Williams) (1918–2012), trade unionist, social activist and administrator, was born on 22 April 1918 (or 4 April 1917) in Bantry, Co. Cork, only child of Harry and Jane Williams. A Welsh petty officer in the Royal Navy, Harry Williams was stationed at Bantry (1914–…...
Conway, Frederick William
Conway, Frederick William (1781/2–1853), journalist and book collector, was the son of Luke Conway, printer of the Connaught Gazette, a pro-government newspaper published at Loughrea, Co. Galway, for some months in 1797. From 1806 to 1812 he was a major contributor to the…...
Cooke, Adolphus
Cooke, Adolphus (1792–1876), eccentric, was born in Cookesborough near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, illegitimate son of Robert Cooke, landowner, and an unnamed servant. Adolphus's mother was sent away, and he was raised by a nurse, Mary Kelly, in a two-room thatched cottage, forbidden…...
Cook, Robert
Cook, Robert (1646?–c.1726), eccentric, was the son of Robert Cook of Cappoquin, Co. Waterford. During the reign of James II (qv) he fled to England and lived at Ipswich. In its act of attainder the 1689 Jacobite parliament…...
Cooley, Thomas
Cooley, Thomas (1742–84), architect, was baptised 11 July 1742 in the church of St Katherine Coleman, London, the son of William Cooley, master mason, and his wife Mary. On 3 August 1756 he was apprenticed to George Wright, a carpenter. He served some of his apprenticeship with, or…...
Coppinger, Richard William
Coppinger, Richard William (1847–1910), naval surgeon, naturalist, and explorer, was born 11 October 1847 in Dublin, youngest among six sons of Joseph William Coppinger, solicitor, of Farmley, Dundrum, Co. Dublin, and Agnes Mary Coppinger (née Cooke), a native of Co. Tipperary. He…...
Coppin, Louisa (Little Weesy)
This is a co-subject for the entry on Coppin, William. View the original entry....