Clarke, John
Clarke, John (1889–1980), potato breeder, was born on 1 February 1889 in his mother's homeplace of Lemnagh Beg in the parish of Ballintoy, north Co. Antrim, eldest child of Daniel Clarke (d. 1940) and his wife Rose Clarke (née McLernon) (d. 1897). Daniel Clarke owned a small farm in…...
Clear, Thomas
Clear, Thomas (1911–94), forester, was born on 22 December 1911 at 50 Main Street, Portlaoise, the son of Thomas Clear, a carpenter, and Lizzie Clear (née Scott). Educated at a local secondary school in Portlaoise, he obtained a county council scholarship in 1930 to study agriculture at…...
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…...
Clerke, Agnes Mary
Clerke, Agnes Mary (1842–1907), historian of astronomy and scientific writer, was born 10 February 1842 in Skibbereen, Co. Cork, second child and younger daughter of John William Clerke, manager of the Provincial Bank, Bridge St., and his wife Catherine Mary, youngest sister of the…...
Clinch, Phyllis E. M.
Clinch, Phyllis E. M. (1901–84), scientist, was born 12 September 1901 in Rathgar, Dublin, the fourth daughter of James and Mary Clinch. She entered UCD in 1919 and graduated B.Sc. (1923) in…...
Close, Maxwell Henry
Close, Maxwell Henry (1822–1903), Church of England clergyman and geologist, was born 23 October 1822 in Merrion Square, Dublin, the eldest of the eleven children (eight sons and three daughters) of Henry Samuel Close, a partner in Ball's Bank, Dublin, and his wife, Jane, a daughter of…...
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…...
Coffey, Brian
Coffey, Brian (1905–95), poet, academic, teacher, and publisher, was born 8 June 1905 at Glenageary, Co. Dublin, son of Denis J. Coffey (qv), president of UCD, and Maude Coffey (née Quin…...
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…...
Collier, Peter Fenelon
Collier, Peter Fenelon (1849–1909), publisher and newspaper proprietor, was born 12 December 1849 in Myshall, Co. Carlow, son of Robert C. Collier and Catherine Collier (née Fenelon). After an education in local schools he emigrated to America at 17 and entered St Mary's seminary…...
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…...
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-…...
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…...