Alton, Ernest Henry
Alton, Ernest Henry (1873–1952), classical scholar and public representative, was born 21 September 1873 at Marlinstown, near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, eldest son of James Poë Alton, banker, of Limerick and Marguerite Alton (née Keely). His abiding passion for classical literature was…...
Anster, John Martin
Anster, John Martin (1793–1867), poet, translator of Goethe's Faust, and regius professor of civil law in Dublin University, was born 21 October 1793 in Charleville, Cork, son of John Anster, distiller, and Mary Ann Anster (née Hiffernan). The family was catholic, and…...
Aston, William George
Aston, William George (1841–1911), Japanese scholar and diplomat, was born 9 April 1841, near Derry, the son of George Robert Aston, a Unitarian minister. In the early 1850s the family moved to Saintfield, Co. Down, where his father established a school in which Aston himself taught…...
Atkinson, Robert
Atkinson, Robert (1839–1908), philologist, was born 6 April 1839 near Gateshead, Co. Durham, the only child of John and Ann Atkinson. He attended Anchorage Grammar School, and entered Trinity College Dublin (TCD) (1856), but spent 1857–8 at Liège, Belgium, and worked as a schoolmaster…...
Bailey, Mary (‘Lady Bailey’) (née Westenra)
Bailey, Mary (‘Lady Bailey’) (née Westenra) (1890–1960), aviator, was born on 1 December 1890 at 30 Grosvenor Square, London, to Derrick (Derry) Warner William Westenra (1853–1921), the fifth Baron Rossmore, and his wife Mittie (née Naylor) (d. 1953), the daughter of a wealthy English…...
Baillie (Bailie), James Kennedy
Baillie (Bailie), James Kennedy (1793?–1864), classicist and protestant clergyman, was the son of the Rev. Nicholas Ward Kennedy, a schoolmaster, and grandson of James Kennedy, a medical man in Co. Down. He entered TCD aged fourteen (1807),…...
Baillie, William
Baillie, William (1723–1810), printmaker and art dealer, was born 11 June 1723 at Kilbride, Co. Carlow, the second son of the upholsterer Robert Baillie of Celbridge, Co. Kildare, and his wife Susanna (née Antrobus). After his education at Dr…...
Barnes, William
Barnes, William (1801-86), poet and philologist, was born at Bagber Common in the Blackmore Vale, Dorset, England, and baptised on 20 March 1801, son of John Barnes, tenant farmer, and Grace Barnes (née Scott). After a variety of occupations, including the making of woodcuts, he…...
Barrington, Samuel
Barrington, Samuel (d. 1693), clockmaker, may have been a son of Francis Barrington, a Cromwellian settler, who died in Limerick in 1683. He was flourishing in Dublin from 1665 to 1674 and had a contract for the maintenance of the Tholsel clock. He moved to Galway and then (1691…...
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus (1739–1821), clergyman, architect, and cartographer, was born 1 October 1739 in London, son of Daniel Cornelius Beaufort and Esther Beaufort (née Gougeon), members of the huguenot community. The family moved to Ireland when Daniel's father became chaplain…...
Bedell, William
Bedell, William (1571–1642), scholar and churchman, was born in late December 1571 at Black Notley, Essex, England, second son of John Bedell and his wife, Elizabeth Elliston, and entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1584, the year of its foundation. He graduated in 1588, took his…...
Berwick, Edward
Berwick, Edward (1754?–1820), classicist and anglican clergyman, was born in Co. Down, son of Duke Berwick, gentleman. After attending the Rev. Saumarez Dubourdieu's school in Lisburn, Co. Antrim, he entered TCD (1770), gained a…...
Blackley, William Lewery
Blackley, William Lewery (1830–1902), clergyman, social reformer, and linguist, was born 30 December 1830 at Dundalk, Co. Louth, second son of Travers Robert Blackley, physician, and Eliza Blackley (née Lewery). From 1843 to 1845 he was educated in Brussels by Dr Carl Martin…...
Bourke, Dermot Robert Wyndham-
Bourke, Dermot Robert Wyndham- (1851–1927), 7th earl of Mayo , landowner, politician, and patron of the arts, was born 2 July 1851, the son of Richard Southwell Bourke (qv), 6th earl of Mayo in the peerage of Ireland, and his…...
Boyd, Henry
Boyd, Henry (1749?–1832), clergyman, poet, and translator, was born in Co. Tyrone, son of Charles Boyd, farmer; nothing is known of his mother. Educated by Mr Davison, he entered TCD as a sizar (June 1770), gained a scholarship (1773),…...
Brady, Maziere
Brady, Maziere (1796–1871), lord chancellor of Ireland and patron of the arts, was born 20 July 1796 in Dublin, second of three sons of Francis Tempest Brady (1763–1821) of Willow Park, Booterstown, Co. Dublin, manufacturer of gold and silver thread, and Martha Brady (née Hodgson…...
Browne, Arthur
Browne, Arthur (1756?–1805), lawyer, legal and classical scholar, and MP, was born probably in Newport, Rhode Island, North America, the only son of Marmaduke Browne (1731–71), rector of Trinity church, Newport, and later a founding fellow of Rhode Island College (from 1804 Brown…...
Butcher, Samuel Henry
Butcher, Samuel Henry (1850–1910), scholar and politician, was born 16 April 1850 in Dublin, the elder son of Samuel Butcher (qv), clergyman, of Danesfort, Co. Kerry, and his wife, Mary (née Leahy), of South Hill, Killarney, Co. Kerry…...
Butler (Thompson), Elizabeth
Butler (Thompson), Elizabeth (1846–1933), Lady Butler , military painter, was born 3 November 1846 at the Villa Claremont, near Lausanne, Switzerland, the elder daughter of Thomas James Thompson and Christiana Thompson (née Weller). The Thompsons were cosmopolitan in outlook,…...
Carney, Sir Richard
Carney, Sir Richard (d. 1692?), herald and painter, is said by Strickland to have been the son of Edward Carney, a Dublin tailor, and to have been appointed a herald in 1652 and principal herald of arms in Ireland in 1655. He was certainly the Richard Carney who was appointed…...
Cary (Tanfield), Elizabeth
Cary (Tanfield), Elizabeth (1585–1639), Viscountess Falkland , writer and translator, was born at Burford Priory, Oxfordshire, the only child and heir of Lawrence Tanfield (c.1551–1625), a wealthy lawyer, later appointed chief baron of the exchequer, and his wife,…...
Charles, Robert Henry
Charles, Robert Henry (1855–1931), Biblical scholar, was born 6 August 1855 at Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, probably in Loy House, fifth of the seven sons of Dr David H. Charles and Annie E. Charles (née Allen). He attended Belfast Academy and won a scholarship to…...
Clarke, Adam
Clarke, Adam (1760/62–1832), methodist minister and scholar, was born at Moybeg, near Maghera, Co. Londonderry, son of John Clarke (fl. 1762), schoolmaster, whose early marriage to a Miss McLean prevented him from completing a degree in…...
Collis, Peter
Collis, Peter (1929–2012), artist, was born in London on 16 November 1929, the son of Herbert Collis, an architect, and Phyllis Collis (née Clark). Growing up in Guildford, Surrey, and later at Esher, Surrey, he received a formal academic training in oil painting at Epsom College (…...
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-…...