Fox, Charlotte Olivia (née Milligan)
Fox, Charlotte Olivia (née Milligan) (1864–1916), ethnomusicologist, was born 17 March 1864 in Omagh, Co. Tyrone, the eldest child among five daughters and six sons (two of whom did not reach adulthood) of Seaton Forrest Milligan (1836–1916) of Glencar, Omagh, businessman,…...
Fox, Kathleen
Fox, Kathleen (1880–1963), painter, enamellist, and stained-glass artist, was born 12 September 1880 at Glenageary, Co. Dublin, daughter of Capt. Henry Charles Fox of the King's Dragoon Guards. She received her artistic training at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, where she…...
Frankau, Julia (‘Frank Danby’)
Frankau, Julia (‘Frank Danby’) (1859–1916), art historian and novelist, was born 30 July 1859 in Dublin, into an English Jewish family, seventh among nine children of Hyman Davis (d. 1871), dentist and later artist/photographer, and his wife Isabella. Her parents arrived in Dublin in…...
Frazer, Hugh
Frazer, Hugh (1793?–1880), artist, was from Dromore, Co. Down. His parents were probably Hugh and Agnes Frazer (née Dickson); Hugh Frazer senior may have been a solicitor, and the family was well-connected locally. Agnes Frazer's grandfather, Alexander Colville (d. 1777), was a…...
French, (William) Percy
French, (William) Percy (1854–1920), songwriter, humourist, entertainer, and painter, was born 1 May 1854 in Cloonyquin House, parish of Tulsk, Co. Roscommon, second son and third child among four sons and five daughters of Christopher French (1821–97), landowner, and Susan Emma French…...
Friers, Rowel Boyd
Friers, Rowel Boyd (1920–98), cartoonist and painter, was born 13 April 1920 in Ravenhill Road, Belfast, youngest among six children of William Friers (d. 1926), a cashier in Irish Distillery, and Nellie Friers (née Stevenson). Rowel was educated at Park Parade intermediate school. All…...
Frömel, Gerda
Frömel, Gerda (1931–75), sculptor, was born 5 November 1931 at Schönberg, Czechoslovakia, eldest of four daughters of German parents. The family moved to Vienna in 1945 and later to Germany, where Frömel studied art in Stuttgart (where she received a scholarship in 1949), Darmstadt…...
Frye, Thomas
Frye, Thomas (1710–62), painter and mezzotint engraver, has traditionally been recorded as being born ‘in or near Dublin’, though it is likely he was born in Edenderry, King's Co. (Offaly), second among five sons of John Frye (1670–1752) and Anne Harrington, who also had two…...
Funge, Paul
Funge, Paul (1944–2011), artist and cultural impresario, was born Matthew Paul Funge on 25 January 1944 in Earslfort Terrace, Dublin, the youngest of three sons of Thomas Funge, a draper, of Main Street, Gorey, Co. Wexford, and his wife Ellen (née Doyle). His brother Michael followed…...
Furlong, George Joseph
Furlong, George Joseph (1898–1987), art historian and gallery director, was born 1 February 1898 in Dundrum, seven miles north-west of Cashel, Co. Tipperary, son of Michael Furlong, hotel proprietor, and Kate Mary Furlong (née Bourke). Although he was orphaned at 9, the family…...
Furniss, Harry
Furniss, Harry (1854–1925), illustrator and caricaturist, was born 26 March 1854 in Wexford town, youngest son of James Furniss, civil engineer, originally from Hathersage, Derbyshire, and his second wife Isabella Cornelia, daughter of Eneas McKenzie, topographer, of Newcastle upon…...
Gahan, (Winifred) Muriel Françoise
Gahan, (Winifred) Muriel Françoise (1897–1995), promoter of cooperation and traditional crafts, was born 27 October 1897 at Magherabeg House, near Donegal town, the second daughter of (Fredrick George) Townsend Gahan, a civil engineer with the Congested Districts Board, and…...
Gailey, Robert Alan
Gailey, Robert Alan (1935–2013), folklife scholar and museum director, was born on 4 October 1935 in Galway. Known by his middle name, Alan was the second child of Andrew J. Gailey (d. 1963), a presbyterian minister in Galway, and Mary Gailey (née Porter). He had two sisters. From…...
Gandy, James
Gandy, James (1619–89), portrait painter, was born in Exeter, England, and is thought to have been a pupil or assistant of Sir Anthony Van Dyck (d. 1641). He was one of the many artists influenced by the French and Dutch schools, and he moved to Ireland (1662) with his patron the…...
Gandy, William
This is a co-subject for the entry on Gandy, James. View the original entry....
Gay, Thomas Earnan
Gay, Thomas Earnan (1884–1953), librarian and republican, was born in Dublin on 22 January 1884, the eldest of six children (two girls and four boys) of Thomas Patrick Gay, a porter and later a warehouseman, and his wife Catherine (née Coleman). He was educated at the…...
Geddes, Wilhelmina Margaret
Geddes, Wilhelmina Margaret (1887–1955), stained-glass artist, was born 25 May 1887 at her maternal grandparents’ home, Drumreilly, Co. Leitrim, eldest of four children of Belfast-born William Geddes, site engineer with the Sligo, Leitrim, and Northern Counties Railway, and Eliza Geddes…...
Gibbings, Robert John
Gibbings, Robert John (1889–1958), engraver, illustrator, and author, was born 23 March 1889 in Co. Cork, son of the Rev. Edward Gibbings, rector of Carrigrohane, and Caroline Gibbings (née Day). He was educated at boarding schools in Fermoy and Cork before entering…...
Gifford, Grace (Evelyn)
Gifford, Grace (Evelyn) (1888–1955), cartoonist and republican, was born 4 March 1888 at 8 Temple Villas, Palmerston Park, Rathmines, Dublin, one of twelve children of Frederick Gifford, a wealthy solicitor, and Isabella Gifford (née Burton), a niece of the artist Sir…...
Gilbert, Irene
Gilbert, Irene (c.1910–1985), fashion designer, was born in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Both in private conversation and public interview she was always secretive and little is therefore known of her parentage or early life, although on one occasion she did explain that while…...
Gilbert, Sir John Thomas
Gilbert, Sir John Thomas (1829–98), merchant, historian, archivist, and librarian, was born 23 January 1829 at 23 Jervis St., Dublin, second son and fifth child of John Gilbert (1791–1833), wine and cider importer and Portuguese consul, and Mary Anne Gilbert (née Costello), both…...
Gill, Mollie (Ní Giolla, Máire)
Gill, Mollie (Ní Giolla, Máire) (1891–1977), camogie player and administrator, was born Mary Anne Gill on 24 March 1891 at Murphystown, near Leopardstown, in south Co. Dublin, the daughter of James Gill, a shoe-maker, and his wife Jane (neé Daly). Census records suggest that she was the…...
Gleeson, Evelyn
Gleeson, Evelyn (1855–1944), designer, was born 15 May 1855 in Knutsford, Cheshire, the daughter of Irish-born Edward Moloney Gleeson, a medical doctor. Her father had a practice in Knutsford but on a trip to Ireland he was struck by the poverty and unemployment and, with the advice…...
Gordon, William Robert
Gordon, William Robert (1872–1955), painter, was born 19 August 1872 at Ballynahinch, Co. Down, the son of William Gordon, a gardener, and Nancy Gordon (née Moffat). He was educated at the Southwell school, Downpatrick, before going to England at age 14 to work in the Port Sunlight…...
Goulding, Sir William Basil
Goulding, Sir William Basil (1909–82), 3rd baronet, businessman and modernist, was born 4 November 1909 at Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, the elder of two sons of Sir William Lingard Amphlett Goulding (qv) and his wife Nesta Violet (née Wright). Educated at Winchester…...