Cole, Grenville Arthur James
Cole, Grenville Arthur James (1859–1924), geologist, was born 21 October 1859 in London, second son of John Jenkins Cole of London, architect to the London Stock Exchange. He was educated at City of London School and the Royal School of Mines, London, where he was demonstrator in…...
Cole, William Willoughby
Cole, William Willoughby (1807–86), 3rd earl of Enniskillen and amateur geologist, was born 25 January 1807 at Florence Court, Co. Fermanagh, the country seat of the earls of Enniskillen. Cole was the eldest of three sons of the 2nd earl and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Henry…...
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…...
Collins, Jerome James
Collins, Jerome James (1841–81) meteorologist, Arctic explorer, and founder of Clan na Gael, was born 17 October 1841 in Cork city, the son of Mark Collins, a lime and saltworks owner of South Main Street, Cork, and his wife Ellen (née Ryan). He attended St Vincent's Seminary,…...
Collis, John Stewart
Collis, John Stewart (1900–84), writer and naturalist, was born 16 Febuary 1900 in Kilmore, Killiney, Co Dublin, one of twin sons (his twin was Robert Collis (qv)) of William Stewart Collis, a solicitor in the…...
Comyn, David
Comyn, David (1854–1907), Irish-language revivalist, was born 13 May 1854 in Henry Street, Kilrush, Co. Clare, only child of John Comyn and Mary Comyn (née Hassett). On leaving school, he joined the National Bank as a clerk and was based, for the most part, in College Green, Dublin.…...
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…...
Connellan, Owen
Connellan, Owen (1797–1871), Gaelic scholar, royal historiographer, and scribe, was born in Tireragh, Co. Sligo, son of a farmer. He claimed descent from the kings of Ireland through the chieftains of Bunnyconnellan in Mayo, and was most likely related to another nineteenth-century…...
Connellan, Thaddeus (‘Thady’)
Connellan, Thaddeus (‘Thady’) (Tadhg Ó Coinnialláin) (c.1780–1854), Irish-language scholar and scribe, was born at Corkhill, Templeboy, Co. Sligo. Little is known of his education except that he received instruction in the classics at a hedge school in Co. Clare. He…...
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…...
Connor (O'Connor), Bernard
Connor (O'Connor), Bernard (c.1666–1698), royal physician, anatomist, and historian, was born into a catholic family in Co. Kerry, one of at least three children of Bernard O'Connor, possibly a member of the branch of the lords of Kerry, whose seat was at Carrigafoyle;…...
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, Arthur William
Conway, Arthur William (1875–1950), academic and president of UCD, was born 2 October 1875 in Main St., Wexford town, the only son of Myles and Teresa Conway (née Harris). He had one sister. His father died, aged 34, when Arthur was only two, and his mother married again, to a…...
Conway, Edward Joseph
Conway, Edward Joseph (1894–1968), biochemist, was born 3 July 1894 in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, son of William Francis Conway, a draper who came from farming stock, and Mary Anne Conway (née McCready), whose relatives had established the McCready Shoe Corporation in the United…...
Conyngham, Sir Gerald Ponsonby Lenox
Conyngham, Sir Gerald Ponsonby Lenox - (1866–1956), geodesist, was born 21 August 1866 at Springhill, Moneymore, Co. Londonderry, the seventh of ten children of Sir William Fitzwilliam Lenox-Conyngham, KCB,…...
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…...
Cooper, Edward Joshua
Cooper, Edward Joshua (1798–1863), astronomer and MP, was born in May 1798 at St Stephen's Green, Dublin, the eldest son of Edward Synge Cooper (1762–1830) of Markree castle, Co. Sligo, landowner and MP for Co. Sligo (1806–30), and his wife Anne, daughter of Henry Verelst,…...
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…...
Corbett, William Edward
Corbett, William Edward (1824–1904), engineer and architect, was born 19 April 1824 in Limerick city, son of Patrick Corbett, a member of an old Limerick family. Nothing is known of his mother. He is described as a civil engineer on his death certificate and obituaries, but there…...
Corish, Richard
Corish, Richard (1886–1945), trade unionist and politician, was born 17 September 1886 at 35 William St., Wexford town, eldest among three children of Peter Corish, carpenter, and Mary Corish (née Murphy). Educated at the CBS Wexford…...