Drew, Sir Thomas
Drew, Sir Thomas (1838–1910), architect and antiquary, was born 18 September 1838 at Victoria Place, Belfast, into the large family of the Rev. Dr Thomas Drew (qv), son of a Limerick grocer, and Isabella Drew (née Dalton; 1802–69), daughter…...
Ducart, Davis
Ducart, Davis (fl. c.1760–85), engineer and architect, was probably born in Savoy. Contemporary variations of his name include Daviso de Arcort and Davis Duckart. His family background is obscure; one possibility is that he grew up in Piedmont and later served as a military…...
Duff, Thomas
Duff, Thomas (c.1792–1848), architect, was born in Newry, Co. Down. Nothing is known of his parentage and early life, except that he was a catholic. It is possible that he was the ‘Thomas Duffe’ who won a prize at the Dublin Society (1805) for an architectural design. It…...
Dúnchad
Dúnchad (d. 717), 11th abbot of Iona, was of royal descent, being a direct descendant of some of the Uí Néill high-kings – grandson of Maél Cobo (d. 615) and grandnephew of Domnall (qv) (d. 642). Under his rule (from c.707) Iona, and…...
Ecgberht
Ecgberht (c.638–729), an Englishman of noble birth, moved to Ireland, ‘either for the sake of religious studies or to live a more contemplative life’, according to Bede. His departure for Ireland can be assigned to the period when Bishops…...
Énnae (Enda, Éanna)
Énnae (Enda, Éanna) (d. c.530), one of the earliest monastic founders of the Irish church, is said to have been born in the mid fifth century in the kingdom of Airgialla. His Latin Life, which is a late production, has a number of chronological incongruities. It states…...
Ensor, George
This is a co-subject for the entry on Ensor, John. View the original entry....
Ensor, John
Ensor, John (d. 1787), architect and developer, travelled as a young man from Coventry, England, to Ireland in the 1730s with his younger brother George. Their parents are said to have been Job Ensor and his wife Mary Hill. John was associated with…...
Éogan
Éogan (fl. c.570), monk of Kilnamanagh, bishop of Ardstraw, and saint in the Irish tradition, belonged in all probability to Dál nAuluim, a forshloinne (subject people) of the Ulaid. The genealogies represent Éogan as the son of Cainnech, son of Bishop Erc. If…...
Erc
Erc (d. 513/15), bishop of Slane and saint in the Irish tradition, belonged to the obscure Munster population-group of Corco Auloimm. His father is named in the genealogies as Daig son of Branchú, and he shares his Corco Auloimm ancestry with St…...
Ercnait
Ercnait (5th/ 6th cent.?), foundress of Dún dá Én and saint in the Irish tradition, belonged to the Cruithin lineage of Uí Nialláin, located in the vicinity of Armagh in what would later be the overkingdom of Airgialla. She belongs to the first generation of Irish religious…...
Fachtna (Fachanan)
Fachtna (Fachanan) (c.554–c.600), abbot and founder of Ros Ailithir (Ross Carbery, Co. Cork), was born at Tulach Tenn, in the territory of the Corco Loígde. The Martyrology of Donegal describes him as ‘of the race of Lughaidh, son of Íth’. According to a twelfth-…...
Fáelán
Fáelán (d. early 8th cent.), Irish missionary to Scotland, was a son of Caintigern (qv) (d. 734), who is supposed to have gone to Scotland in the early eighth century with her brother Comgán and her sons, one of whom was Fáelán.…...
Fáilbe
Fáilbe (d. 679), 8th abbot of Iona and predecessor of Adomnán (qv), was a third cousin of Cumméne Find (qv), 7th abbot, and therefore a distant kinsman of…...
Fainche
Fainche (6th cent.), anchoress, abbess of Ros Airthir (Rossory, Co. Fermanagh), and saint in the Irish tradition, most likely belonged to the dynasty of Cenél Lóegaire. Later medieval genealogies (Book of Lecan and Leabhar Breac) name her father as Crimthann son of Guaire –…...
Falloon, Cecil Samuel Gordon ('Paddy')
Falloon, Cecil Samuel Gordon ('Paddy') (1911–2003), businessman, hotelier, and restorer of historic buildings, was born 10 July 1911 in Camly Macullagh, a townland near Newtownhamilton in south Co. Armagh, younger son and youngest of four children of Samuel Falloon, farmer, and his…...
Féchín (Mo-Ecca)
Féchín (Mo-Ecca) (d. 665) of Fore, monastic founder, notable ascetic, and saint in the Irish tradition, is known from one Latin and one Irish Life. John Colgan (qv) knew of three Irish Lives, which he conflated into a Latin version called…...
Fer-dá-Chrích
Fer-dá-Chrích (d. 748), also known as Áed grandson of Aithmet, was abbot of Dairinis and a prominent member of the Céli Dé reform movement in the eighth-century Irish church. The familiar name ‘Fer-dá-Chrích’ (man of two districts) was accorded to several distinguished…...
Fergno (Fergna, Virgno) Brit
Fergno (Fergna, Virgno) Brit (‘the Briton’) (d. 623), 4th abbot of Iona and the first to be described as a bishop in the later martyrologies, was (according to Colgan's (qv) Latin Life) son of Fáilbe, a descendant of…...
Fergus
Fergus (fl. early 8th cent.), an Irish missionary bishop to Pictland (and indeed to large parts of northern Scotland), is known in the ‘Breviary of Aberdeen’ as Fergus, but in other Scottish calendars corruptly as Terguse or Tergusius. Although he is apparently unknown…...
Fergus, John
Fergus, John (c.1700–1761), doctor of medicine and collector of books and manuscripts, was born in Co. Mayo, where a branch of the Ó Fearghusa family was to be found. His father's name was Mac Raith, and hence Dr Fergus was sometimes referred to in Irish as Seán mac Mac Raíth Ó…...
Ferguson, Sir Samuel
Ferguson, Sir Samuel (1810–86), poet and archivist, was born 10 March 1810 in Belfast, youngest of six children of John Ferguson, landowner, and his wife Agnes, daughter of John Knox, clockmaker. Ferguson attended the Belfast Academical Institution, and went on to be a student at…...
Fiacc
Fiacc (d. late 5th cent.), bishop of Sléibte (Sletty, Co. Carlow), was a younger contemporary of St Patrick (qv). The only sources for the life of this obscure bishop are the materials on the life of Patrick, the…...
Fiacre (Fiachra)
Fiacre (Fiachra) (d. c.670) was anchorite bishop of Brie in the district of Meaux in northern France. Biographical information is very sparse; the chief source, the ‘Vita Faronis’ (the Life of Bishop Faro (d. 672) of Meaux), states that Fiacre went to France as a man of…...
Fínán
Fínán (d. 661), monk of Iona and bishop of Lindisfarne, was Irish-born, apparently the son of one Rímid, and was probably of Ulster origin, although his genealogy is not preserved. A priest of the Columban community, he travelled to Northumbria in 652 to take up episcopal office as…...