Barbour, William Pirrie ('Bill')
Barbour, William Pirrie ('Bill') (1920–2009), teacher, and community and political activist, was born in Newtownards, Co. Down, son of Walter Terence Barbour, a director of the Combe Barbour engineering firm, and his wife Blanche (née Redman), whose father owned wine shops in London…...
Beshoff, Ivan
Beshoff, Ivan (1882?–1987), Russian immigrant and purveyor of fish and chips, was said in obituaries in the Irish Times and elsewhere to have been born in 1882 (or perhaps 1884) at Dacha Rurey, near Odessa in Ukraine, son of a magistrate, and, after briefly studying chemistry,…...
Butt, Mahmood (‘Mike’)
Butt, Mahmood (‘Mike’) (1927–88), restaurateur, was born 7 May 1927 in Nairobi, Kenya, into an Islamic Indian family of one daughter and five sons of Ahmed Butt, railway engineer, and Zakia Butt. He was educated at a catholic school in Nairobi. After running a fleet of hire cars…...
Cousins, James Henry Sproull
Cousins, James Henry Sproull (1873–1956), writer, teacher, and theosophist, was born 22 July 1873 in Cavour Street, Belfast, the eldest child of James Cousins, a deep-sea mariner of Glastry, Co. Down, and Susan Cousins (née Davey), of Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim. Educated at a local…...
Dunlop, Daniel Nicol
Dunlop, Daniel Nicol (1868–1935), businessman and esotericist, was born 28 December 1868 in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, only child of Alexander Dunlop, described variously as an architect or builder, and Catherine Dunlop (née Nicol) (1847–73). His father, a stern authoritarian, was…...
Fallon, Padraic
Fallon, Padraic (1946–2012), journalist and businessman, was born on 21 September 1946 in the County Hospital, Wexford, the youngest of six sons of Padraic Fallon (qv), a poet, playwright and customs official of Rowe Street, Wexford, and his…...
Halliday, Fred (Simon Frederick Peter)
Halliday, Fred (Simon Frederick Peter) (1946–2009), academic, writer and public intellectual, was born on 22 February 1946 in Dublin, the youngest of three sons of Arthur Halliday, a quaker shoe manufacturer, and Margaret Mary 'Rita' Halliday (née Finigan), of Dundalk. He was educated…...
McGahern, John
McGahern, John (1934–2006), writer, was born in Dublin on 12 November 1934, eldest of seven children (two sons and five daughters) of Francis McGahern, garda sergeant and veteran of the Irish war of independence, from Gowna, Co. Cavan, and his wife Susan (née McManus), schoolteacher, a…...
Musa, Jennifer ('Mummy'; Jennifer Jehanzeba Qazi Musa)
Musa, Jennifer ('Mummy'; Jennifer Jehanzeba Qazi Musa) (1917–2008), politician, tribal elder and nurse, was born Bridget Wren on 11 November 1917 in Tarmons, Tarbert, Co. Kerry, one of five daughters and two sons of John Wren, a small-holding farmer, and his wife Johanna (née…...
O'Brien, Donal Cruise
O'Brien, Donal Cruise (1941–2012), political scientist, was born in Dublin on 4 July 1941, eldest of two daughters and a son of Conor Cruise O'Brien (qv), diplomat, politician and writer, and his first wife Christine (née Foster). He…...
O'Malley, Pamela (Kathleen Mary)
O'Malley, Pamela (Kathleen Mary) (1929–2006), bohemian, radical and educationalist, was born in Dublin on 12 July 1929, daughter of Patrick O'Malley, Limerick tea, wine and spirit importer, and his wife Kathleen (née Bonass). Donough O'Malley…...
Orpen, Adela Elizabeth (née Richards)
Orpen, Adela Elizabeth (née Richards) (1855–1927), writer, was born on a slave plantation in Virginia, USA, on 3 February 1855, the only surviving child of Edward Moore Richards and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth (née Tisdale). Following the death of her mother on 19 February 1860, her…...
Pearse, James
Pearse, James (1839–1900), sculptor, was born on 8 December 1839 at 24 Plumtree Street, Bloomsbury, London, the second of three sons of James Pearse, frame-maker, and his first wife Mary Ann (née Thompson). The family was impoverished and moved to Birmingham (c.1847), where…...