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…...
Clive (Raftor), Catherine (Kitty)
Clive (Raftor), Catherine (Kitty) (1711–85), comic actress, singer, and writer, was probably born in London on 5 November 1711. Her father, William Raftor or Rafter, was a Kilkenny-born lawyer, who lost his claim on a large estate following his support of…...
Cluskey, Mary Elizabeth (‘May’)
Cluskey, Mary Elizabeth (‘May’) (1927–91), actress, was born 18 May 1927 at 83 St Ignatius Road, off Lower Dorset St., Dublin, one of three daughters and two sons of Francis (‘Frank’) Cluskey, butcher and trade unionist, and Elizabeth Mary Cluskey (née Millington). Her father, a close…...
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, Eileen
Colgan, Eileen (1934–2014), actor, was born on 2 January 1934 in Dublin to Charles Colgan, a cabinet maker, and his wife Eileen (née McNamara). She was one of five children (three boys and two girls) and grew up on Russell Street on the north side of the city. Her father and an elder…...
Condon, Richard
Condon, Richard (1937–91), theatre manager, was born 27 July 1937 in Belfast, the eldest son of a local architect. Educated at St Gerald's College, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, he qualified to study medicine at UCG in 1956; however, while…...
Conlon, Guiseppe Patrick
This is a co-subject for the entry on Conlon, Sarah (née Maguire). View the original entry....
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-…...
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…...
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, Austin
Cooper, Austin (b. c.1614, d. a.1690), gardener and strongman, inherited property from his father at Byfleet in Surrey. His father or another relative is said to have held a court appointment under Charles I. Cooper purchased land in England from a Cromwellian…...
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…...
Corneille, Rudolph
Corneille, Rudolph (fl. 1690–1717), engineer and architect, was born at Medemblik, Holland, son of Rudolphe Gideon Corneille and Anne Corneille, probably French huguenot refugees. He went to Ireland c.1690 as an engineer in …...
Corry, John
This is a co-subject for the entry on Corry, Sir James Porter White. View the original entry....
Costello, Mary Ann
Costello, Mary Ann (1747–1827), actress and mother of the British prime minister George Canning, was born in Ireland, daughter of Jordan Costello, a Connacht squire. Apparently orphaned at an early age, she was brought up in the care of her maternal grandfather, Col. Guydickens, in…...
Costello, Michael (‘The Amazing Blondini’)
Costello, Michael (‘The Amazing Blondini’) (1922–96), fairground performer and escapologist, was born at a fairground in Dublin in August 1922; both his parents were fairground novelty acts from Tralee, his father a strong man and his mother a fortune teller. He had no formal…...
Cotter (alias O'Brien), Patrick
Cotter (alias O'Brien), Patrick (1760/61–1806), giant and showman, was born at Belgooly, near Kinsale, Co. Cork. His parents were farmers; while no details of his father are available, his mother was still alive at the time of his death and is named in his will as Margaret Cotter…...
Cotton, Henry
Cotton, Henry (1789–1879), theologian and bibliographer, was born in Bucks., England, son of the Rev. William C. Cotton of Chichley, Berks., educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1811; MA…...
Cowley, John Ultan
Cowley, John Ultan (1923–98) actor and animal welfare activist, was born 8 September 1923 in Ardbraccan, Navan, Co. Meath, the third child of Patrick Cowley, a small farmer, and his wife Margaret. Educated at the local national school, he left at the age of thirteen to work on the…...
Craig, Mary (‘May’)
Craig, Mary (‘May’) (c.1889–1972), actress, was born in Dublin, younger of two surviving daughters of David Craig, an engineer, and his wife Emma. As a child she enjoyed regular trips with her mother to see operas and plays in the Dublin theatres. Later famous for her…...
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.…...
Crawford, John Wallace
Crawford, John Wallace (1847–1917), frontier scout, writer and entertainer, was born 4 March 1847 in Carndonagh, Co. Donegal, the son of John Austin Crawford, a Glasgow tailor, and Susie Wallace. His father moved to Minersville, Pennsylvania, to work in the coalmines in 1854; his mother…...