Bladen, Martin
Bladen, Martin (1682?–1746), soldier, administrator, and politician, was born in Bolton, Yorkshire, third son of Yorkshire parents: Nathaniel Bladen of Hemsworth and Isabella Bladen (née Fairfax) of Steeton. William Bladen, mayor of Dublin 1647–8 and state printer under the…...
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, Edith
Blake, Edith (1845–1926), botanical illustrator and writer, was born in Newtown Anner, near Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, eldest daughter of the heiress Catherine Isabella Osborne (1819–80) of Newtown Anner, and Ralph Bernal Osborne (qv), (…...
Blake, Mary Elizabeth
Blake, Mary Elizabeth (1840–1907), poet, was born in September 1840 at Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, daughter of Patrick McGrath and his wife Mary (née Murphy). The family emigrated in 1846 to Quincy, Massachusetts, USA, where Patrick McGrath was a marble-worker and businessman. After…...
Blakeney, Sir William
Blakeney, Sir William (1672?–1761), Baron Blakeney , soldier and MP, was born at Mount Blakeney, Co. Limerick, eldest of five sons of William Blakeney of Thomastown, Co. Limerick, country gentleman and MP for Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, and Elizabeth Blakeney (née Bowerman) of…...
Blathmac
Blathmac ( fl. 8th cent.), poet and author of devotional poems on the Passion of Christ and on the Virgin Mary, was son of Cú Brettan son of Congus (d. 740), who may have been king of the Fir Rois, a sept of the Airgialla located in the present counties Louth and…...
Blenerhasset (Hasset, Blennerhassett), Thomas
Blenerhasset (Hasset, Blennerhassett), Thomas (1550?–1624), poet and undertaker in Ulster, was probably born at Horsford, Norfolk, and was a younger son of William Blenerhasset (d. 1598) and his wife Anne (née Colby), members of the Norfolk gentry. He seems to have studied at…...
Bligh, Thomas
Bligh, Thomas (1693–1775), soldier and MP, was born 14 August 1693, second among three sons of Thomas Bligh (1654–1710), of Rathmore, Co. Meath, country gentleman, privy counsellor, and MP for Athboy, Co. Meath (1692–3) and for Co. Meath (1695–9, 1703–10), and his wife Elizabeth (…...
Blood, Thomas
Blood, Thomas (1617/1618–1680), conspirator and spy, was born in Sarney, Co. Meath, the son of a relatively prosperous blacksmith and ironworker, probably also Thomas Blood, from whom he may have inherited the lands he later held at Sarney and in Co. Wicklow. He appears to have had…...
Blount, Charles Brooke
Blount, Charles Brooke (1563–1606), 8th Baron Mountjoy and earl of Devonshire , soldier and administrator, was second son of James Blount (1532/3–1581), 6th Baron Mountjoy, of Canford near Poole, Dorset, and his wife Catherine (née Lee/Leigh; d. 1576) of St Oswald's, Yorkshire.…...
Blundell, Mary
Blundell, Mary (1859–1930), novelist, better known under the pen name ‘M. E. Francis ’, was born 22 August 1859 at Killiney Park, Co. Dublin, second of four daughters of Michael James Sweetman , a wealthy catholic, and Margaret Sweetman (née Powell), heiress, of Fitzwilliam Sq.…...
Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen
Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen (1840–1922), eccentric, traveller, and poet, was born 17 August 1840 at Petworth House, Sussex, second son of Francis Scawen Blunt of Crabbet House, Sussex, who was a grenadier guard, and his wife Mary Chandler of Surrey, daughter of a Church of England…...
Bodkin, Thomas
Bodkin, Thomas (1887–1961), art historian, was born in Dublin 21 July 1887, eldest of six children of Matthias McDonnell Bodkin (qv) and Arabella Bodkin (née Norman) of Dublin. Educated at Belvedere College, Clongowes Wood…...
Bodley, Sir Josias
Bodley, Sir Josias (c.1550–1617), soldier and military engineer, was fifth and youngest son of John Bodley of Exeter, Devonshire, England, and his wife Joan, daughter and co-heiress of Robert Hone of Ottery St Mary, Devonshire. His family moved to Geneva during the reign of…...
Boisseleau, Alexandre de Rainier de Droué
Boisseleau, Alexandre de Rainier de Droué (c.1650–1698), marquis of Boisseleau , French major-general and governor of Limerick, was not yet 40 at the time of his appointment to command the besieged Jacobite forces in Limerick, but had spent most of his life in the French…...
Böll, Heinrich Theodor
Böll, Heinrich Theodor (1917–85), writer, was born 21 December 1917 in Cologne, Germany, the youngest of eight children (two died in infancy) of Viktor Böll, a master joiner specialising in woodcarvings for churches, and Maria Böll (née Hermanns). The family was catholic, interested…...
Booth, Eva Selina Gore-
Booth, Eva Selina Gore- (1870–1926), poet, mystic, trade unionist and suffragist, was born on 22 May 1870 at Lissadell, Co. Sligo, the second of three daughters (and two sons) of Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th baronet and Arctic explorer, and his wife, Georgina (née Hill) of Tickhill castle…...
Borlase, Sir John
Borlase, Sir John (1575/1576–1648), lord justice and army officer, was probably the son of Edmund Borlase, mercer of London, and his wife Suzan, or Suzannah, née Isham. He may have matriculated from King's College, Cambridge in 1591 and he was admitted to the Middle Temple 19…...
Borthwick, Mariella Norma
Borthwick, Mariella Norma (1862–1934), artist, writer and Irish-language activist, was born 25 July 1862 in Highfield, Higher Bebington, Chester, one of five daughters and three sons of George Borthwick, merchant, and Mary Elizabeth Borthwick (née MacDonald), of Edinburgh. Despite her…...
Boucicault, Dion Lardner
Boucicault, Dion Lardner (1820–90), playwright and actor, was born 27 December 1820 at Gardiner St., Dublin, probably the illegitimate son of Dr Dionysius Lardner (qv), a TCD scientist, and…...
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…...
Bourke, Patrick John
Bourke, Patrick John (1883–1932), actor-manager and dramatist, was born at 34 Lower Dorset St., Dublin. His father, Laurence Bourke, died about 1892 and his mother, a native of Newbridge, Co. Kildare, three years later. He spent the next six years living with relatives in west Wicklow…...
Bourke, Theobald
Bourke, Theobald (c.1615?–1653), 3rd Viscount Mayo , soldier and politician, was son and heir of Miles Bourke (qv), 2nd Viscount Mayo, and Honora, daughter of Sir John Bourke of Derrymaclaghtny, Co. Galway.…...
Bourke, Walter
Bourke, Walter (d. 1715), soldier, was first of seven sons of Richard Bourke of Turlough, Co. Mayo (son of Theobald Bourke and Margaret, 3rd daughter of Theobald, 1st Viscount Mayo), and his wife Celia, daughter of Dermot O'Shaughnessy, of the ancient family of Gort, Co. Galway. His…...
Bourke, William
Bourke, William (1623–67), 5th Baron Castleconnell , soldier, was son and heir of Edmund Bourke and his first wife, Thomasine, daughter of Sir Thomas Browne of Hospital, Co. Limerick. Edmund held over 3,000 acres in Co. Limerick, primarily in the barony of Clanwilliam, alongside the…...