Bergin, Liam Diarmuid
Bergin, Liam Diarmuid (1913–94), newspaper proprietor and editor, was born 15 August 1913 at Athy Road, Carlow town, son of Patrick C. Bergin, publican and merchant, and Kathleen Bergin (née Conlan). Educated at Newbridge College boarding school, he joined the Nationalist and…...
Beshoff, Ivan
Beshoff, Ivan (1882?–1987), Russian immigrant and purveyor of fish and chips, was said in obituaries in the Irish Times and elsewhere to have been born in 1882 (or perhaps 1884) at Dacha Rurey, near Odessa in Ukraine, son of a magistrate, and, after briefly studying chemistry,…...
Besson, Kenneth George
Besson, Kenneth George (1915–81), hotelier, was born 25 July 1915 in Dublin, youngest of three children of Paul George Besson (born in London to a Swiss father and a French mother), hotelier, and Joan Besson (née McLean Stewart). Having served his time in London hotels, Paul Besson…...
Betty, William Henry West
Betty, William Henry West (1791–1874), actor, was born 13 September 1791 in St Chad's parish, Shrewsbury, England (his mother's home), son of William H. Betty of Lisburn, Co. Antrim, who was in the linen trade; they moved back to a farm near Ballynahinch, Co. Down. His mother, Mary…...
Bewley, Ernest
Bewley, Ernest (1860–1932), founder of Bewley's Oriental Cafés, was born 14 November 1860 at Donore, Bray, Co. Wicklow, into a well established quaker business family, grandson of Samuel Bewley (qv) and younger son among two sons and…...
Bewley, Henry
Bewley, Henry (1804–76), businessman and evangelist, was born 4 July 1804, fifth of ten sons of Samuel Bewley, Dublin businessman, and Elizabeth Bewley (née Fayle); they also had three daughters. An older brother, who had been named Henry, died aged two in January 1804, and the name…...
Bewley, Joshua
This is a co-subject for the entry on Bewley, Ernest. View the original entry....
Bewley, Samuel
Bewley, Samuel (1764–1837), silk merchant, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, was born 21 April 1764 into a quaker family, youngest son of Thomas Bewley (1719–95) of Mountmellick, Queen's Co. (Laois), and Susanna Bewley (née Pim). He was probably apprenticed to a silk merchant in…...
Bewley, Victor Ernest Henry
Bewley, Victor Ernest Henry (1912–2000), quaker businessman and philanthropist, was born on 24 May 1912, at Danum, the family estate in Rathgar, one of five children to Ernest Bewley (qv) and Susan Emily Bewley (née Clarke) from Doncaster.…...
Bianconi, Charles
Bianconi, Charles (1786–1875), transport entrepreneur, was born Joachim Carlo Guiseppe Bianconi on 24 September 1786 at Tregolo, near Como in Lombardy, Italy, the second of five children of Pietro and Maria Bianconi. His father owned a farm and a silk mill, and was agent for the…...
Biggs, Michael
Biggs, Michael (1928–93), sculptor and letter-cutter, was born 26 August 1928 in Stockport, Cheshire, England, of English parents, second son of Claud Biggs, musician and teacher at the RIAM, Dublin, and Marjorie Biggs (née Markham). He…...
Bindon, Francis
Bindon, Francis (c.1690–1765), portraitist and architect, was fourth son among nine children of David Bindon (c.1650–1733) of Clooney, Co. Clare, landowner and MP for Ennis 1715–27, and Dorothy, daughter of Samuel Burton of Buncraggy, Co. Clare. He studied painting…...
Bingley, Sir John
Bingley, Sir John (d. 1638?), administrator, possibly a Chester relative of Sir Ralph Bingley, served in Dublin from c.1599 as deputy to the treasurer at war. As secretary (1 June 1603–2 February 1605) to Sir George Carey (qv), lord deputy, he allegedly enriched himself…...
Binns, John
Binns, John (1730?–1804), silk merchant, canal developer, and radical politician, was the son of Joshua Binns, who in 1719 was admitted to the Dublin weavers' guild by special grace. John Binns was admitted to the guild by birth in 1756, so he was probably born in the mid 1730s.…...
Black, Robert Denis (R. D.) Collison ('Bob')
Black, Robert Denis (R. D.) Collison ('Bob') (1922–2008), economist, was born at Morehampton Terrace, Donnybrook, Dublin, on 11 June 1922, the son of William Robert Black, commercial clerk in the grain trade, and his wife Rose Anna Mary (née Reid). The family moved to Waltham…...
Blackshaw, Basil
Blackshaw, Basil (1932–2016), artist, was born on 20 July 1932 in Glengormley, Co. Antrim, the youngest of seven surviving children of Samson (Sam) Blackshaw, a groom and gamekeeper from England, and his wife Edith (née Clayton), the daughter of a gamekeeper, from Coalisland, Co.…...
Bladen, William
Bladen, William (c.1585–1663), printer and bookseller, was born in England, son of Thomas Bladen, yeoman of Derbyshire; nothing is known of his mother. In 1602 he became an apprentice in the London Stationers’ company, being freed on 7 May 1610. Thereafter he worked in…...
Blake, James
Blake, James (p.1560–1635), alias ‘Caddell’, ‘Blackcaddell’, ‘Blague’, and ‘Diego de Blac(c)adell’, merchant, soldier, and double agent, was born in Galway, second son of Walter Blake (d. 1573) and his wife Juliana (née Browne). The aliases derive from variants on ‘Blake’…...
Blake, John
Blake, John (c.1594–1680), merchant, was the eldest son, of the four sons and one daughter, of Nicholas Blake, merchant, of Galway, and his second wife, Juliana, daughter of Valentine French. He was head of the senior, but by no means most prosperous, branch of the Blake…...
Blakely, Colin George Edward
Blakely, Colin George Edward (1930–87), actor, was born 23 September 1930 at Bangor, Co. Down, the son of Victor Charles Blakely and Dorothy Margaret Blakely (née Ashmore). Educated at Sedbergh school in Yorkshire, he began work as a salesman in the family sports retail business,…...
Blake, Sir Valentine
Blake, Sir Valentine (1560–c.1634), merchant and mayor of Galway, was eldest of three sons of Walter Blake of Galway and Juliana Blake, daughter of James Browne of Galway. A leading merchant, trading at least with Spain and Portugal, by 1592 he was described as the…...
Blaney, Neal (Neil)
Blaney, Neal (Neil) (1889–1948), politician and businessman, was born 5 November 1889 in the family home at Rosnakill, Co. Donegal, fifth of six children of William Blaney, small farmer, and Anna Blaney (née Sweeney). Aged 12, he left school to work on the family farm, situated…...
Bloomfield, John Caldwell
Bloomfield, John Caldwell (1823–97), landlord and entrepreneur, was born 5 February 1823, eldest son of John Colpoys Bloomfield and Frances Arabella Bloomfield (née Caldwell); there were three other sons and a daughter. His mother, a descendant of Sir John Caldwell, was coheiress…...
Blow, James
Blow, James (1676–1759), printer and papermaker in Belfast, was born 29 July 1676 in Scotland, possibly in Culross, Perthshire, a younger son among nine children of John Blow and Elizabeth Blow (née Wilson). He was apprenticed to the printer Patrick Neil (who had married his sister…...
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…...