Ashe, Nora (Honora)
Ashe, Nora (Honora) (1882–1970), teacher, nationalist, and Irish language enthusiast, was born 15 July 1882 in Kinard, Lispole, Co. Kerry, the third daughter in the family of ten of Gregory Ashe, a farmer, and Ellen (née Hanafin), of Tobar, Co. Kerry. Both her parents were native…...
Barry, Katty
Barry, Katty (1909–82), restaurateur and famous Cork character, was born on Dalton's Avenue, off the Coal Quay, Cork, daughter of John Barry. Her mother ran a provisions shop on Dalton's Avenue, which Katty took over and turned into an eating house. Beautiful, witty, earthy, and…...
Bates, Daisy May
Bates, Daisy May (1859–1951), welfare worker for Aborigines, anthropologist, and eccentric, was born 21 October 1859 in Roscrea, Co. Tipperay, third among six children of James Dwyer , catholic tradesman and blacksmith, and Bridget Dwyer (née Hunt). Her twin brother, Francis, died…...
Blake, Caroline
Blake, Caroline (1835–1919), landlord and hotelier, was born Caroline Johanna Burke in 1835 in Co. Tyrone, to Henry A. Burke, a protestant clergyman, and Julia Burke (née Blake) of Co. Mayo. Little is known of her childhood, although she regularly spent holidays at Renvyle House in…...
Bonney (Bonny), Anne
Bonney (Bonny), Anne (c.1700–p.1721), pirate, is thought to have been born in Cork about 1700. While her life story has been somewhat mythologised over time, the lead source about her remains the work of a Captain Charles Johnson (presumed to be the pseudonym of Daniel…...
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…...
Brooke, Charlotte
Brooke, Charlotte (1750☓1760–1793), poet, dramatist, and pioneer in the introduction of Irish culture to the English reader, was born at Rantavan House, Mullagh, Co. Cavan, daughter of Henry Brooke (qv) and Catherine Brooke (née Meares; 1718?–…...
Browne, José
This is a co-subject for the entry on Browne, Dennis. View the original entry....
Bryant, Sophie
Bryant, Sophie (1850–1922), educationist, home ruler, Celticist, and suffragist, was born 15 February 1850 in Sandymount, Dublin, second daughter and third child of Sophia Willock (née Morris) of Dublin and Skreen Castle, and the Rev. William Alexander Willock (d. 1879 in London),…...
Butler, Mary Ellen Lambert
Butler, Mary Ellen Lambert (1873–1920), novelist, was born 28 June 1873 in England, the youngest of the two daughters and a son of Peter Butler (1840–80) of Bunnahow House, Co. Clare, and Mary Ryan of Tipperary. The Butlers were landowners who remained catholic. Through intermarriage,…...
Cadden, Mary Anne (‘Mamie’) (‘Nurse Cadden’)
Cadden, Mary Anne (‘Mamie’) (‘Nurse Cadden’) (1891–1959), midwife and abortionist, was born 27 October 1891 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA, eldest of seven children of Patrick Caden, of a small-farming background from Doonbredia, Lahardane, Co. Mayo, and Mary Caden (née McLoughlin), a…...
Caitilín Dubh
Caitilín Dubh (fl. 1624–9), poet, lived in Thomond (present-day Co. Clare). She is the earliest woman poet for whom texts in the Irish language survive in quantity. Five of her elegies, in accentual (or stressed) caoineadh metre, are copied into Duanaire Uí Bhriain…...
Cashman, Nellie
Cashman, Nellie (1845?–1925), frontier entrepreneur and philanthropist, was born in the mid 1840s near Cobh (Queenstown), Co. Cork. Documentary details of her early life in Ireland and America are few, rendering any chronology of her first twenty-five years largely speculative.…...
Cleary, Bridget
Cleary, Bridget (1867–95), dressmaker, was born in Ballyvadlea, near Cloneen, Co. Tipperary, daughter, and apparently the youngest child, of Patrick Boland , a farm labourer, and his wife, Bridget (née Keating). This was probably in February 1867, although most contemporary…...
Clifford, Mary (‘Mai’)
Clifford, Mary (‘Mai’) (née Hollingsworth ) (1913–86), trade union official and laundress, was born 25 September 1913 at Phoenix Park, Glasgow, Scotland, the elder of one daughter and one son of Joseph Hollingsworth, a blacksmith from Co. Kerry, and his wife Elizabeth, a Glasgow…...
Copley, Clara (‘Ma’)
Copley, Clara (‘Ma’) (1865–1949), boxing promoter, was born 14 May 1865 at Masbrough, Rotherham, England, to Jonas Roddis, fishmonger, and his wife Mary Roddis. Clara was the sixth of their nine children. She married Joseph Copley of Leeds on 22 November 1886 at Darfield, Yorkshire.…...
Crowley, (Mary) Patricia
Crowley, (Mary) Patricia (1933–2013), fashion designer, was born on 17 May 1933, in Taylor's Hill, Galway, the daughter of Hubert Vernon , who worked in a local branch of the Bank of Ireland, and Margaret ('Netta') Vernon (née Morrissey), daughter of a prosperous family of grain…...
Deane, Anne (Duff)
Deane, Anne (Duff) (c.1834–1905), businesswoman, philanthropist, and nationalist, was born at Ballaghadereen, Co. Roscommon, the daughter of Joseph Duff and Monica Duff (née Dillon), a younger sister of the Young Irelander, …...
De Valera, Sinéad
De Valera, Sinéad (1875–1975), teacher, folklorist, and writer, was born Jane Flanagan , 1 June 1875, in Ballbriggan, Co. Dublin, one of three daughters and four children of Laurence Flanagan, a carpenter, and Margaret Flanagan (née Byrne). When she was seven the family moved to Munster…...
Dobbs, Margaret Emmeline
Dobbs, Margaret Emmeline (1871–1962), Gaelic Leaguer, was born in Dublin on 19 November 1871, one of four children of Conway Edward Dobbs (1818–98) of Glenariff Lodge, Parkmore, Co. Antrim, landowner, justice of the peace (JP) of Co. Antrim and high sheriff of Carrickfergus (1875) and…...
Duffy, Louise Gavan
Duffy, Louise Gavan (1884–1969), educator, nationalist and Irish language enthusiast, was born 17 July 1884 in Cimiez, near Nice, the only daughter among four children of the marriage of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (qv), journalist and…...
Duignan, Mary Ann (‘Chicago May’)
Duignan, Mary Ann (‘Chicago May’) (1871–1929), criminal and prostitute, was born c.26 December 1871 in Edenmore, Ballinamuck, Co. Longford, eldest among two daughters and three sons of Francis Duignan (1837–1930), farmer, and Anne Duignan (née Gray) (1852–1924); the pet name ‘…...
Gaj, Margaret (née Dunlop)
Gaj, Margaret (née Dunlop) (1919–2011), restaurateur, radical, and political activist, was born on 28 January 1919 in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of four children (two girls and two boys) of James Aloysius Dunlop and his wife Ellen (née O'Malley). Both parents were catholics of Irish…...
Gallagher, Eileen Helen Mary
This is a co-subject for the entry on Gallagher, Redmond. View the original entry....
Gibson, Violet Albina
Gibson, Violet Albina (1876–1956), failed assassin, was born 31 August 1876 in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, to Edward Gibson (qv), a wealthy lawyer and politician, and Frances Maria Adelaide Gibson (née Colles), the daughter of a barrister. Violet was…...