Airey, Johanna (‘Josie’)
Airey, Johanna (‘Josie’) (1932–2002), legal-aid campaigner, was born 4 May 1932 at 154 Bandon Road, Cork city, one of two daughters and two sons of Michael Lynch , labourer, and Eileen Lynch (née Sullivan). Her parents both died early, leaving her in the care of her grandmother,…...
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…...
Carroll, Mella Elizabeth Laurie
Carroll, Mella Elizabeth Laurie (1934–2006), judge, was born 6 March 1934 in Dublin, second among four children of Patrick Joseph Carroll (qv) and his wife Agnes Mary (née Caulfield). Her father had been an officer in the national…...
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.…...
Conlon, Sarah (née Maguire)
Conlon, Sarah (née Maguire) (1926–2008), campaigner, was born 20 January 1926 in the Falls Road area of Belfast, the daughter of Vincent Maguire and Mary Catherine Maguire; she had three brothers and three sisters. Sarah's life was dominated by work, family and religion. On leaving…...
Cotter, Brigid Mary
Cotter, Brigid Mary (1921–78), chemist and barrister, was born 3 January 1921 in Roscommon, the eldest daughter in the family of twelve children of Nicholas Patrick Cotter, the chief agricultural officer for Roscommon, and his wife, Bridie, née O'Brien. Brigid was educated at the…...
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, …...
Delahunt, Katherine
Delahunt, Katherine Mary (‘Kay’, ‘Katryn’) (1956–2015), first female solicitor appointed to the Circuit Court, was born on 28 April 1956, the third of four girls and a boy, to Thomas (Tom) A. Delahunt, director of the Wicklow-based home décor firm S. V. Delahunt & Co, and his wife…...
Fleming, Marie
Fleming, Marie (1953–2013), campaigner for assisted suicide, was born Eileen Mary Brolly on 26 December 1953 in Lifford, Co. Donegal, the first of five children (two girls and three boys) to Annette (née Maxwell) and Daniel Brolly, a painter and decorator. In 1969, when she was fourteen…...
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…...
Gray, Caroline Agnes (Carrie)
This is a co-subject for the entry on Gray, Edmund William Dwyer. View the original entry....
Guiney, Mary
Guiney, Mary (1901–2004), businesswoman and centenarian, was born 2 March 1901, daughter of John Leahy, a farmer of Creeves, near Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, and his wife Hannah (née Cuddihy). Mary, known as May when she was a young woman, had at least one older brother and an older…...
Herlihy, Nora
Herlihy, Nora (1910–88), founder of the Irish credit union movement, was born 27 February 1910 at Ballydesmond, Co. Cork, the third of twelve children of Denis Herlihy, a teacher, and Nora Herlihy (née Mulcahy). Having taught firstly in Belmullet, Co. Mayo, Nora's father was appointed…...
Kellett, Iris
Kellett, Iris (1926–2011), showjumper and horse trainer, was born on 8 January 1926 in Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, the only child of Thomas Kellett, of Mespil Road, Ballsbridge, and his wife Julia (née Maron). Her father was a veterinary surgeon who, after service as a British army…...
Kennedy, Eileen
Kennedy, Eileen (1914–83), district justice, was born 30 May 1914 in Dublin, daughter of Patrick Kennedy, solicitor, and Delia Kennedy (née Blood). Educated at St Louis convent, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan, where her father had established a legal practice, she qualified as a…...
Kiernan, Catherine Brigid (‘Kitty’)
Kiernan, Catherine Brigid (‘Kitty’) (1893–1945), hotelier, and fiancée of Michael Collins (qv), was born 26 January 1893 in Granard, Co. Longford, fifth child and fourth daughter among six daughters and one son of Peter Kiernan, a…...
Leeson, Margaret (‘Peg’)
Leeson, Margaret (‘Peg’) (1727–97), prostitute, brothel-keeper, and memoirist, was born Margaret Plunket at Killough, Co. Westmeath, one of eight surviving children of Matthew Plunket, a wealthy farmer, and his wife, whose maiden name was O'Reilly. Most of what is known about Margaret…...
Locke, Mary Anne Theresa
This is a co-subject for the entry on Locke, John. View the original entry....
McCormack, Inez Jane Mary (née Murphy)
McCormack, Inez Jane Mary (née Murphy) (1943–2013), human rights activist and trade unionist, was born on 28 September 1943 in Belfast to Francis Cecil Murphy, a printer, and his wife, Margaret Murphy (née Sterritt), a nurse. She had one older brother, Terence (b. 1942). When Inez was…...
Moran, Frances Elizabeth
Moran, Frances Elizabeth (1893–1977), university teacher and lawyer, was born on 6 December 1893, younger daughter and fifth among seven children of James Moran and Elizabeth Moran (née Faulkner). Her father was a prominent catholic businessman, proprietor of Moran's Hotel, 71–3 Lr…...
Mulally, Teresa
Mulally, Teresa (1728–1803), educationist, businesswoman, and philanthropist, was born in October 1728, in Pill Lane, near Chancery Street, Dublin, the only child of Daniel and Elizabeth Mulally. While she was young, her father, a provisions dealer, retired from his business and…...
Mulrooney (Carbonneau), Belinda
Mulrooney (Carbonneau), Belinda (1872–1967), frontier entrepreneur, was born on 16 May 1872 (though her official birth certificate stated 10 June) in her maternal grandparents' 21-acre farm near Carns, Co. Sligo, the first child of one son and four daughters of John Mulrooney from Carra…...