Cogan, Philip
Cogan, Philip (c.1748–1833), organist, pianist, and composer, was probably born in Co. Cork, though his parentage is unclear. He was a choirboy and then a lay vicar at St Fin Barre's cathedral, Cork, before taking up a post as stipendiary in the choir of Christ Church…...
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 (…...
Collisson, William Alexander Houston
Collisson, William Alexander Houston (1865–1920), clergyman and musician, was born 20 May 1865 in Dublin, son of William Houston Collison and Elizabeth O'Callaghan. Before graduating from TCD (Mus.D.…...
Colthurst, John Colthurst Bowen-
Colthurst, John Colthurst Bowen- (1880–1965), army officer and murderer, was born John Colthurst Bowen in Cork on 12 August 1880, eldest son of Robert Walter Travers Bowen JP (who changed the family name to Bowen-Colthurst in 1882 to meet the…...
Comyn, Michael (Micheál Coimín)
Comyn, Michael (Micheál Coimín) (c.1680–1760), prose writer and poet in Irish, was son of Patrick Óg Comyn, farmer of Kilcorcoran, Co. Clare, and Joanna Comyn (née Fitzgerald). Michael's grandfather lost a substantial freehold in five townlands of Kimacrehy parish during…...
Congreve, William
Congreve, William (1670–1729), playwright and poet, was born 24 January 1670 at Bardsley, Yorkshire, the son of William Congreve (1637–1708), an army officer, and Mary Browning (d. 1715) of Doncaster. In 1674 his father gained a commission as lieutenant in the army in Ireland, and…...
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-…...
Conyngham, Melosina Anne Lenox-
Conyngham, Melosina Anne Lenox- (1941–2011), traveller and writer, was born on 22 February 1941 in Ceylon (latterly, Sri Lanka). Her father, Gerald Hamilton Lenox-Conyngham, a tea planter in Wattegoda, in the south of the island, was descended from an Ulster ascendancy family and…...
Cotter, George Sackville
Cotter, George Sackville (1755–1831), clergyman, poet, and translator, was most probably born in Co. Cork, the fourth and youngest son of Sir James Cotter, MP, created first baronet of Rockforest, Co. Cork, in 1763, and his wife, Arabella (née Rogerson, formerly Cassaubon), coheir…...
Cousser (Kusser), John (Johann) Sigismond
Cousser (Kusser), John (Johann) Sigismond (1660?–1727), composer and master of the king's music in Ireland, was born in Pressburg (later Bratislava) and baptised on 13 February 1660, the son of a Hungarian cantor and composer. In 1674 he moved with his parents and sister to Stuttgart…...
Craig, Harry (Henry Armitage Llewellyn, 'H. A. L.')
Craig, Harry (Henry Armitage Llewellyn, 'H. A. L.') (1921–78), writer and political activist, was born on 20 October 1921 in Dromtariffe, Kanturk, Co. Cork, one of twin sons of James Robert Hanna Craig, a Church of Ireland clergyman, and his wife Margaret Eva Grace (née Llewellyn),…...
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.…...
Croker, Bithia Mary (‘B. M.’)
Croker, Bithia Mary (‘B. M.’) (née Sheppard ) (c.1849–1920), novelist and short-story writer, was born in Roscommon, the youngest daughter of the Rev. William Sheppard (d. 1856), Church of Ireland clergyman for the parish of Kilgeffin, Co. Roscommon. She was educated in…...
Croker, John Wilson
Croker, John Wilson (1780–1857), politician and author, was born in Galway 20 December 1780, eldest among two sons and a daughter of John Croker (1743–1814), exciseman and surveyor general of Dublin port 1800–07, and his second wife, Hester (née Rathbone), daughter of a Co. Galway…...
Croly, George
Croly, George (1780–1860), clergyman and writer, was born 17 August 1780 in Dublin, the son of Robert Croly, a physician. In 1795 he enrolled at TCD, becoming a scholar (1798), graduating BA (1800)…...
Crookshank, Anne Olivia
Crookshank, Anne Olivia (1927–2016), art historian, was born in Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim, on 3 January 1927, the second of three daughters to Henry Crookshank, a geographical surveyor, and his wife Eileen ‘Kitty’ Crookshank (née Somerville-Large). For the first five years of her life Anne…...
Curran, Amelia
Curran, Amelia (1775–1847), artist, was born in Redmond's Hill, Dublin, eldest child of John Philpot Curran (qv), orator, lawyer, and parliamentarian, and Sarah Curran (née Creagh), both of Newmarket, Co. Cork. Her artistic…...
Curran, Henry Grattan
Curran, Henry Grattan (1800–76), barrister, resident magistrate, and author, was born 5 February 1800 in Tipperary, illegitimate son of John Philpott Curran (qv), master of the rolls; his mother's surname was Fitzgerald. Having one stepbrother and one stepsister,…...
Currey, Frances Wilmot (‘Fanny’)
Currey, Frances Wilmot (‘Fanny’) (1848–1917), artist and horticulturalist, was born 30 May 1848 at Lismore castle, Co. Waterford, the daughter of Francis Edmund Currey and his wife, Anna. Her father, who for many years was land agent to the dukes of Devonshire, was also an early…...
Daborne, Robert
Daborne, Robert (c.1580–1628), playwright and cleric, was the son of Robert Daborne (1551–1612), a tradesman of Guildford, Surrey, and his wife, Susan (née Travis; d. 1626). He states in the preface to A Christian turn'd Turke (1612) that his descent was ‘not…...
Davies, Sir John
Davies, Sir John (1569–1626), lawyer and poet, was baptised at Tisbury, Wiltshire, 16 April 1569. His father, whose name is usually given as John, but sometimes as Edward, Davies (d. 1580), was of Welsh descent, and his mother, Mary (née Bennett; d. 1590), came from a Wiltshire…...
Davis, Thomas Osborne
Davis, Thomas Osborne (1814–45), Young Irelander, poet, and journalist, was born 14 October 1814 at Mallow, Co. Cork, youngest of three sons and one daughter of James Thomas Davis, military surgeon, and his wife Mary (née Atkins). Family and education James…...
Dawson, Arthur
Dawson, Arthur (1698–1775), lawyer, poet, and politician, was born 9 October 1698, the eldest son of Joshua Dawson (c.1660–1725), landowner and later MP for Wicklow borough (1705–14), and his wife, Anne Dawson (née Carr). He was educated by Dr Jones in Dublin, and then…...
Dawson, George William Percy
Dawson, George William Percy (1927–2004), geneticist, art lover and philanthropist, was born 7 August 1927 in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, England, the only child of Percy John Fritz Stanley Dawson, fishmonger, and his wife Edith Helen (née Fildes). Education He was…...
Day, Robert
Day, Robert (1746–1841), politician, judge, and diarist, was born 1 July 1746 at Lohercannon, near Tralee, Co. Kerry, the third son in a family of five sons and two daughters of the Rev. John Day (1711–81), chancellor of Ardfert, and his wife Lucy, a daughter of Maurice FitzGerald…...