Clancy, Michael
Clancy, Michael (c.1704–1776), writer, was born in Co. Clare, son of Daniel Clancy, a soldier (or possibly a doctor) and a man of letters. His life, as recounted in his Memoirs (an incomplete and somewhat fanciful account), is dedicated to the earl of Kildare. He…...
Clark, Henry Maitland
Clark, Henry Maitland (1929–2012), politician, colonial administrator and businessman, was born on 11 April 1929 in Co. Londonderry, the middle of three children (two boys and a girl) of Henry ('Harry') Francis Clark and his wife Sybil Emily (née Stuart); the family resided in Rockwood…...
Clark, Wallace
Clark, Wallace (1926–2011), yachtsman, writer and businessman, was born in Upperlands, Co. Derry, on 20 November 1926, one of three children, two boys and a girl, of Harry Francis Clark, of Rockwood in Upperlands, and his wife Sybil Emily (née Stuart). His father was a director and…...
Cleeve, Sir Thomas Henry
Cleeve, Sir Thomas Henry (1844–1908), industrialist, was born 5 June 1844 in Richmond, Quebec, Canada, eldest son among six sons and one daughter of Edward Elms Cleeve (1814–85), originally of Woolwich, England, and later of Cleveland, Quebec, and his wife Sophia Olivia (d. 1904),…...
Cochrane, Jean Crawford
Cochrane, Jean Crawford (1914–2013), educator and activist for women's education, was born on 27 June 1914 in Lifford, Co. Donegal, the eldest daughter of Hugh Crawford Cochrane, a solicitor and under-sheriff for the county, and Lucy Cameron Cochrane (née Boyd). Jean attended school…...
Collins, Alfred Tenison
Collins, Alfred Tenison (1852–1945), banker, was born 22 September 1852 in Tipperary town, the son of Joseph Tenison Collins and Sarah Louise Collins, daughter of Charles Morrogh McCarthy. Joseph was for many years manager of the National Bank, Ballinasloe, and was a contributor to…...
Comyn, Michael (Micheál Coimín)
Comyn, Michael (Micheál Coimín) (c.1680–1760), prose writer and poet in Irish, was son of Patrick Óg Comyn, farmer of Kilcorcoran, Co. Clare, and Joanna Comyn (née Fitzgerald). Michael's grandfather lost a substantial freehold in five townlands of Kimacrehy parish during…...
Congreve, William
Congreve, William (1670–1729), playwright and poet, was born 24 January 1670 at Bardsley, Yorkshire, the son of William Congreve (1637–1708), an army officer, and Mary Browning (d. 1715) of Doncaster. In 1674 his father gained a commission as lieutenant in the army in Ireland, and…...
Conyngham, Melosina Anne Lenox-
Conyngham, Melosina Anne Lenox- (1941–2011), traveller and writer, was born on 22 February 1941 in Ceylon (latterly, Sri Lanka). Her father, Gerald Hamilton Lenox-Conyngham, a tea planter in Wattegoda, in the south of the island, was descended from an Ulster ascendancy family and…...
Cope, William
Cope, William (1738–1820), silk merchant and municipal politician, was born in Dublin, son of Joseph Cope and Susannah Cope (née Handcock) of Dublin. The biographical details of his antecedents are not complete, though it would appear they were of English origin. (His grandfather…...
Cotter, George Sackville
Cotter, George Sackville (1755–1831), clergyman, poet, and translator, was most probably born in Co. Cork, the fourth and youngest son of Sir James Cotter, MP, created first baronet of Rockforest, Co. Cork, in 1763, and his wife, Arabella (née Rogerson, formerly Cassaubon), coheir…...
Craig, Harry (Henry Armitage Llewellyn, 'H. A. L.')
Craig, Harry (Henry Armitage Llewellyn, 'H. A. L.') (1921–78), writer and political activist, was born on 20 October 1921 in Dromtariffe, Kanturk, Co. Cork, one of twin sons of James Robert Hanna Craig, a Church of Ireland clergyman, and his wife Margaret Eva Grace (née Llewellyn),…...
Craig, Maurice James Waldron
Craig, Maurice James Waldron (1919–2011), architectural historian, writer and poet, was born 25 October 1919 at 11 University Square, Belfast, elder of two sons of James Andrew Craig, a leading ophthalmic surgeon, and Blanche Craig (née Alice Blanche Sara Waldron), an Englishwoman.…...
Crawford, William Horatio
Crawford, William Horatio (1812×1818–1888), brewer and philanthropist, was first-born son of William Crawford (d. 1840), brewer, and Dulcibella Crawford (née Morris) of Lakelands House, Blackrock, Cork; a brother died young. The family was originally from Co. Down, related to the…...
Croker, Bithia Mary (‘B. M.’)
Croker, Bithia Mary (‘B. M.’) (née Sheppard ) (c.1849–1920), novelist and short-story writer, was born in Roscommon, the youngest daughter of the Rev. William Sheppard (d. 1856), Church of Ireland clergyman for the parish of Kilgeffin, Co. Roscommon. She was educated in…...
Croker, John Wilson
Croker, John Wilson (1780–1857), politician and author, was born in Galway 20 December 1780, eldest among two sons and a daughter of John Croker (1743–1814), exciseman and surveyor general of Dublin port 1800–07, and his second wife, Hester (née Rathbone), daughter of a Co. Galway…...
Croly, George
Croly, George (1780–1860), clergyman and writer, was born 17 August 1780 in Dublin, the son of Robert Croly, a physician. In 1795 he enrolled at TCD, becoming a scholar (1798), graduating BA (1800)…...
Crommelin, (Samuel) Louis
Crommelin, (Samuel) Louis (1652–1727), huguenot businessman, settler of Lisburn, Co. Antrim, and putative founder of the Irish linen industry, was born in Armancourt, near St Quentin, in the French province of Picardy, the son of Louis Crommelin and Marie Mettayer. The Crommelin…...
Crookshank, Anne Olivia
Crookshank, Anne Olivia (1927–2016), art historian, was born in Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim, on 3 January 1927, the second of three daughters to Henry Crookshank, a geographical surveyor, and his wife Eileen ‘Kitty’ Crookshank (née Somerville-Large). For the first five years of her life Anne…...
Curran, Henry Grattan
Curran, Henry Grattan (1800–76), barrister, resident magistrate, and author, was born 5 February 1800 in Tipperary, illegitimate son of John Philpott Curran (qv), master of the rolls; his mother's surname was Fitzgerald. Having one stepbrother and one stepsister,…...
Cusack, John
Cusack, John (d. 1626), merchant, was the eldest son, of the seven sons and three daughters, of Nicholas Cusack of Ballymolghan, Co. Meath, and his wife, Maud, daughter of Thomas Plunket of Lagore. He was admitted a freeman of Dublin in 1592, having served his apprenticeship. He…...
Daborne, Robert
Daborne, Robert (c.1580–1628), playwright and cleric, was the son of Robert Daborne (1551–1612), a tradesman of Guildford, Surrey, and his wife, Susan (née Travis; d. 1626). He states in the preface to A Christian turn'd Turke (1612) that his descent was ‘not…...
Dabzac, Henry Joseph
Dabzac, Henry Joseph (1737–90), academic, was born in Minorca, son of Henry d'Abzac (1677–1750) and his wife (m. 1711 in Dublin) Magdalen, daughter of Capt. D'Artoux. Henry d'Abzac, naturalised as a subject of the crown in Ireland, was the son of Marc Dabzac by Jane (b. 1703 at…...
Darling, Sisson Putland
Darling, Sisson Putland (1737–1817), schoolmaster, was the son of Richard Darling (1685–1766) of North Strand, Dublin, and his wife, Anne (née Davis). Richard's great-grandfather was John Darling (d. 1620), protestant dean of Emly (1608–20). The family pedigree gives no clue to…...
Darlington, Joseph
Darlington, Joseph (1850–1939), Jesuit and academic, was born 5 November 1850 in Wigan, Lancashire, second son of Ralph Darlington (occupation unknown). He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford (2 December 1869) and graduated BA (1874)…...