Barlow, James William
Barlow, James William (1826–1913), historian and writer, was born 21 October 1826 in Co. Dublin, eldest son of the Rev. William Barlow and Catherine Barlow (née Disney). He was marked by his mother’s unhappiness: as a young woman she had been in love with…...
Barr, Andrew (Andy)
Barr, Andrew (Andy) (1913–2003), trade unionist and communist, was born 23 September 1913 at 29 Cluan Place, off Mountpottinger Road, Ballymacarrett, Belfast, second child among two sons and five daughters (two other children died in infancy) of Andrew Barr (d. 1986, aged 98), a…...
Barre, William Joseph
Barre, William Joseph (1830–67), architect, was born in Newry, Co. Down, and articled to Thomas Duff of Newry (1847–8) and Edward Gribbon of Dublin (1848–50) before establishing his practice (1850) in Newry. He gained immediate recognition with his controversial design for the…...
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus (1739–1821), clergyman, architect, and cartographer, was born 1 October 1739 in London, son of Daniel Cornelius Beaufort and Esther Beaufort (née Gougeon), members of the huguenot community. The family moved to Ireland when Daniel's father became chaplain…...
Bedell, William
Bedell, William (1571–1642), scholar and churchman, was born in late December 1571 at Black Notley, Essex, England, second son of John Bedell and his wife, Elizabeth Elliston, and entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1584, the year of its foundation. He graduated in 1588, took his…...
Berkeley, George
Berkeley, George (1685–1753), philosopher and Church of Ireland bishop of Cloyne, was born 12 March 1685 in or near Kilkenny city, and spent his childhood at Dysart Castle, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. Little is known of his parents other than that his father, William Berkeley, came to…...
Blythe, Ernest (de Blaghd, Earnán)
Blythe, Ernest (de Blaghd, Earnán) (1889–1975), revolutionary, politician, government minister, managing director of the Abbey Theatre, and Irish-language revivalist, was born 13 April 1889 at Magheragall, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, eldest child among two sons and two daughters of James…...
Booth, Eva Selina Gore-
Booth, Eva Selina Gore- (1870–1926), poet, mystic, trade unionist and suffragist, was born on 22 May 1870 at Lissadell, Co. Sligo, the second of three daughters (and two sons) of Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th baronet and Arctic explorer, and his wife, Georgina (née Hill) of Tickhill castle…...
Bowden, John
Bowden, John (fl. 1798–c.1822), architect, was possibly born in Blessington, Co. Wicklow; nothing is known of his family. He was educated at the Dublin Society school of architectural drawing (1798–c.1801), apprenticed to…...
Boyd, John St Clair
Boyd, John St Clair (1858–1918), surgeon, Gaelic Leaguer and philanthropist, was born at Cultra House, Holywood, Co. Down, only son of John Kane Boyd, co-proprietor of the Blackstaff Mill. He was educated in Paris and Edinburgh before graduating from Queen's College, Belfast (QCB), and…...
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…...
Burke, Edmund
Burke, Edmund (1730–97), politician and philosopher, was born 12 January 1730 (per the Gregorian calendar) in Dublin, second son among four surviving children of Richard Burke (d. 1761), an attorney of the court of exchequer, and his wife Mary (c. 1702–1770), fourth child and…...
Butler, William Archer
Butler, William Archer (1812?–1848), clergyman and professor of moral philosophy, was second son of Pierce Archer Butler and Anna Maria Butler (née Gallwey); their seven children were brought up as Roman Catholics by their mother, though the father, who had several times been…...
Carpenter, Nathanael
Carpenter, Nathanael (1589–1628), scholar and clergyman, was born 7 February 1589 in Northleigh, Devon, England, where his father, John Carpenter (d. 1621), had a living as a clergyman. No details of his mother are known. He matriculated (June 1605) at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and…...
Cavan, Harry (Henry Hartrick)
Cavan, Harry (Henry Hartrick) (1916–2000), football administrator and trade union official, was born on 19 May 1916 in Mary Street, Newtownards, Co. Down, the eldest child of Walter Cavan, a motor body maker, and his wife Clara (née Quinn). Educated locally, he left school at 14 to…...
Cleaver, Euseby Digby
Cleaver, Euseby Digby (1826–94), clergyman and Gaelic revivalist, was born 8 March 1826 in Delgany, Co. Wicklow, eldest son of William Cleaver, rector of Delgany, and Mary (née Mackworth) Cleaver, and grandson of Euseby Cleaver (qv) (…...
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…...
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…...
Coneys, Thomas de Vere
Coneys, Thomas de Vere (1804?–51), Church of Ireland clergyman and first professor of Irish at TCD, was born in Galway, the first son of John Coneys, barrister, of Streamstown, Co. Galway. He was educated at the school of a Mr Whiteley and in October 1819 (aged fifteen) entered…...
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-…...
Craig, Maurice James Waldron
Craig, Maurice James Waldron (1919–2011), architectural historian, writer and poet, was born 25 October 1919 at 11 University Square, Belfast, elder of two sons of James Andrew Craig, a leading ophthalmic surgeon, and Blanche Craig (née Alice Blanche Sara Waldron), an Englishwoman.…...
Daniel (Ó Domhnuill, O'Donnell), William
Daniel (Ó Domhnuill, O'Donnell), William (1570–1628), Church of Ireland archbishop of Tuam and translator of the New Testament into Irish, was a son of Nicholas Daniel of Kilkenny; nothing is known of his mother. During his youth he became a protestant, probably under the…...
Deakin, James Aubrey
Deakin, James Aubrey (1874–1952), Irish-language and republican activist, was born 19 June 1874 at Mount Auburn, Richmond Road, Drumcondra, Dublin, one of at least three sons and five daughters of James Deakin, commercial traveller, native of Birmingham, England, and Mary Anne Deakin (…...
Denham, Sir John
Denham, Sir John (1615–69), poet and architect, was born in Dublin, the only son of Sir John Denham (qv), lord chief justice of Ireland 1612–17, and his wife Eleanor, daughter of Sir Garret…...
Dix, Ernest Reginald McClintock
Dix, Ernest Reginald McClintock (1857–1936), solicitor, book collector, and Irish language enthusiast, was born 8 April 1857 in Dublin, elder son of Henry Thomas Dix (1825–1902), a prominent solicitor, and his wife Emma Patience, daughter of an army officer, Henry McClintock of…...