Birch, Thomas Ledlie
Birch, Thomas Ledlie (1754–1828), radical and presbyterian minister, was born at Birch Grove, Gilford, Co. Down, youngest among nine children of John Birch, a large farmer and officer in the Down militia, and his wife Jane, daughter of John Ledlie of Arboe, Co. Tyrone, a prosperous…...
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…...
Black, Robert
Black, Robert (1752–1817), presbyterian minister, was eldest son of Valentine Black, farmer, of Mullabrack, Co. Armagh. Educated at Glasgow University, he graduated MA in 1772. He was licensed by the presbytery of Armagh in 1776 and ordained in…...
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.…...
Blair, Robert
Blair, Robert (1593–1666), presbyterian minister and a founding father of Irish presbyterianism, was born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, fourth son of John Blair of Windyedge, merchant adventurer, and Beatrix Blair (née Muir). He graduated MA…...
Blake, Anthony
Blake, Anthony (1704?–87), catholic archbishop of Armagh (1758–87), was the younger of two sons of Andrew Blake, landowner, of Kilvine, Co. Mayo. Educated first at Saint-Omer and then at Louvain, he returned to Ireland about 1731 and was appointed priest to the diocese of Tuam,…...
Blakely, Fletcher
Blakely, Fletcher (1783–1862), presbyterian minister, was born 13 May 1783 at Ballyroney, Co. Down, youngest son of Joseph Bleakly, farmer, and was named after the Rev. William Fletcher, the presbyterian minister at Ballyroney. Both his parents died when he was very young; nothing…...
Blake, Michael
Blake, Michael (1775–1860), catholic clergyman, was born 16 July 1775 in Arran Quay parish, Dublin, eldest among six children (two sons and four daughters) of George Blake, originally of Nobber, Co. Meath, and Catherine Blake. He was educated in Dublin under the care of Dr…...
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…...
Blathmac
Blathmac (d. 825), son of Flann, prior or acting abbot of Iona, was guardian of the relics of Colum Cille (qv) during the absence of the abbot, Diarmait, and was murdered by the vikings. According to Walafrid Strabo's ‘Vita…...
Blond, Marcus Joseph
Blond, Marcus Joseph (c.1865–1905), president of the Limerick Jewish community, was a native of Wexna, Lithuania. Ordained a rabbi in his teens, he settled (1880s) in Limerick city, where he established a grocery business. He appears in the 1901 census as ‘Marcus Jacob Blonde’…...
Blowick, John
Blowick, John (1889–1972), missionary priest and theologian, was born 26 October 1888 in Belcarra, Co. Mayo, eldest son of John Blowick, farmer, and Honoria Blowick (née Madden). He had one sister and two younger brothers. John was educated at Westport…...
Bodkin (Bodekin, Bodikin), Christopher
Bodkin (Bodekin, Bodikin), Christopher (c.1505–1572), catholic and Church of Ireland archbishop of Tuam, was born in Galway, the son of John Bodkin, mayor of Galway in 1518. Said to have been educated at Oxford, he was provided to the see of Kilmacduagh 3 September 1533…...
Bodkin, Matthias McDonnell
This is a co-subject for the entry on Bodkin, Matthias McDonnell. View the original entry....
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…...
Boisil
Boisil (d. c.660), abbot of Melrose, Roxburghshire, Scotland, was a successor of the Columban mission to Scotland and Northumbria. Bede (‘Historia ecclesiastica’, iv, 27) describes him as ‘a priest of great virtues, endowed with the spirit of prophecy’. He became the…...
Bole (Bull), John
Bole (Bull), John (a.1425–1471), OSA, abbot of Navan, archbishop of Armagh, was the only archbishop of Armagh in the fifteenth century not to attend university. Little is known of his life before his provision to Armagh beyond the fact that he served as abbot of Navan for…...
Bolton, Theophilus
Bolton, Theophilus (c.1678–1744), archbishop and benefactor, was born in Borisool, Co. Mayo, and graduated BA (1698), MA (1701), BD and…...
Bonnell, James
Bonnell, James (1653–99), government official and exemplar of the pious life, was born 14 November 1653 in Genoa, Italy, only son and one of two children of Samuel Bonnell, merchant, and his wife Rebecca, daughter of Thomas Sayer of Norwich, England. Samuel's grandfather had…...
Bouhéreau, Élie (Elias)
Bouhéreau, Élie (Elias) (1643–1719), huguenot bibliophile, librarian, cleric, diarist, and administrator, was born 5 May 1643 at La Rochelle, France, son of Élie Bouhéreau, pastor of Fontenay, and Blandine Bouhéreau (née Richard). The family was of the upper middle class. He was…...
Boulter, Hugh
Boulter, Hugh (1672–1742), Church of Ireland archbishop of Armagh, was born 4 January 1672, the son of John Boulter of the parish of St Katharine Cree in the city of London. Educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1687, but transferred to…...
Bourke (Burke, De Burgo), John
Bourke (Burke, De Burgo), John (c.1590–1667), catholic archbishop of Tuam, was born in Co. Galway, the son of a country gentleman and a relative of the earls of Clanricarde. He had at least three brothers, including Oliver, a Dominican friar, and Bishop…...
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, Ulick Joseph
Bourke, Ulick Joseph (1829–87), catholic priest, Irish-language revivalist, teacher, and antiquarian, was born 29 December 1829 at Laherdane, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, son of Ulick Bourke and his wife Cecilia Sheridan. He was educated at Errew Monastery, Castlebar, and studied Irish…...
Boyce, John
Boyce, John (1810–64), priest and novelist, was born in Donegal town, one of five children of Jerome Boyce, a hotelier who owned much of the town, became a magistrate, and was ‘a moderate upholder of the English administration’. Two of John's brothers, Jerome (d. childless, 1851)…...