Cú-Chuimne
Cú-Chuimne (d. 747), monk and scholar of Iona, was (according to a note in Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS lat. 12021) joint compiler with Ruben of Dairinis, a monastery on the Blackwater river, of the Irish collection of canons known as ‘Collectio canonum Hibernensis’. The genealogies…...
Curtin, Jeremiah
Curtin, Jeremiah (1835–1906), folklorist, writer, translator and linguist, was born 6 September 1835 in Detroit, Michigan, USA, eldest among seven children of David Curtin, an Irish-speaker who emigrated from Bruree, Co. Limerick, and his wife Ellen (née Furlong) who came from Buttevant…...
Cyprianus (Pseudo -)
Cyprianus (Pseudo -) (fl. early 7th cent.) was the otherwise anonymous author of an important Hiberno-Latin tract, ‘De duodecim abusiuis’. Athough we lack any biographical details other than that he flourished in the first half of the seventh century and was an…...
D'Alton, John Francis
D'Alton, John Francis (1882–1963), cardinal and classical scholar, was born on 11 October 1882 in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, son of Joseph D'Alton, a shopkeeper, and Mary D'Alton (née Brennan). He was a nephew of the antiquary and dean of Tuam Monsignor Edward Alfred D'Alton,…...
Daly, Emily Lucy de Burgh
Daly, Emily Lucy de Burgh (1859–1935), traveller and writer, was born at her father's residence at Clooneyquin, Co. Roscommon, fourth daughter among nine children of Christopher French , JP, DL, and…...
Davidson, Samuel
Davidson, Samuel (1806–98), biblical scholar, was born probably in September 1806 in Kellswater, Co. Antrim, son of Abraham Davidson, farmer, and Margaret Davidson (née Mewha), who had at least one other child, a daughter. Samuel attended a local school, for whose master, James…...
Deasy, Henry Hugh Peter
Deasy, Henry Hugh Peter (1866–1947), soldier, explorer, and pioneer motorist, was born 29 June 1866 in Dublin, second son of Rickard Deasy (qv), privy councillor for Ireland and previously lord justice of appeal, of Carysfort,…...
de Jubainville, Marie-Henri d'Arbois-
de Jubainville, Marie-Henri d'Arbois- (1827–1910), Celtic scholar and linguist, was born 5 December 1827 at Nancy, France, son of Charles-Joseph d'Arbois de Jubainville, judge-auditor of the civil tribunal of Nancy and later advocate to the bar of that district, and his wife…...
Dicuil (Dícuil(l))
Dicuil (Dícuil(l)) (c.760–p.825), Irish scholar-exile at the courts of Charles the Great and Louis the Pious, was an important author of several works on geography, computus, grammar, and astronomy. The only details of his life that are known are what can be…...
Dillon (De Leon), Thomas
Dillon (De Leon), Thomas (1613–90), Jesuit and scholar, was born in Ireland and educated in Spain. In 1627 he entered the Society of Jesus in Seville. He taught philosophy and then scholastic and moral theology at the society's colleges at Seville and Granada. In 1640 he was…...
Dillon, Emile Joseph
Dillon, Emile Joseph (1854–1933), journalist, philologist, and author, was born 21 March 1854 in Dublin, only son of Michael Dillon, merchant, and Mary Dillon (née Byrne). Despite the earnest wishes of his father that he enter the priesthood, he embarked on a wide-ranging,…...
Dillon, Myles Patrick
Dillon, Myles Patrick (1900–72), Celtic and Sanskrit scholar, was born 11 April 1900 in Dublin, third son among five sons and one daughter of the Irish nationalist leader John Dillon (qv) and his wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the Rt Hon.…...
Dill, Sir Samuel
Dill, Sir Samuel (1844–1924), classical scholar, historian, and educationalist, was born 26 March 1844 at Hillsborough, Co. Down, eldest son of the Rev. Marcus Dill, DD, presbyterian minister of Hillsborough, and Anna Dill (née Moreland). He…...
Dingley, Thomas
Dingley, Thomas (d. 1695?), antiquary and traveller, a native of Southampton, England, is known in Ireland for his account of a tour he made in Leinster and Munster in 1681. It contains much on Irish ways of life, particularly diet, dress, pastimes, customs, language, money,…...
Dodds, Eric Robertson
Dodds, Eric Robertson (1893–1979), classical scholar, was born 26 July 1893 at Banbridge, Co. Down, only child of Robert Dodds, headmaster of Banbridge Academy, and Anne Fleming Dodds (née Allen), a teacher. His father's family were northern presbyterians, his mother's smallish Anglo-…...
Donatus
Donatus (d. 876), Irish scholar and ecclesiastic born at the end of the eighth century, was elected bishop of Fiesole, near Florence, in 829. The tenth/ eleventh-century ‘Vita sancti Donati episcopi’ has little biographical detail, and almost nothing is known of Donatus's Irish…...
Donatus Ortigraphus
Donatus Ortigraphus (fl. c.815) was an anonymous grammarian in the Carolingian empire, whose sobriquet is taken from the incipit to his catena of Latin grammatical excerpts. His grammar (essentially a teacher's manual) is arranged in catechetical form as a…...
Dottin, Henri-Georges
Dottin, Henri-Georges (1863–1928), philologist and Celticist, was born 29 October 1863 at Liancourt, in the Oise department of northern France, son of Henri Dottin, public official, and Marie Dottin (née Pourcelle). He was educated in Laval College and afterwards at the University of…...
Downes, George
Downes, George (1790–1846), travel writer and topographer, was born in South King St., Dublin, son of John Downes; no details of his mother are known. He worked as a draper's assistant in his youth before being befriended by one of the Shackletons of Ballitore, Co. Kildare, who…...
Dubthach
Dubthach (d. p. 869), son of Máel-tuile and scribe and author of computistical verses, was one of the group of Irish and Frankish scholars associated with Sedulius Scottus (qv) in the mid ninth century, during…...
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 ‘…...
Duncaht (Dúnchad)
Duncaht (Dúnchad) (fl. 9th cent.) of Reims, scribe and scholar, may perhaps be identified with Donnacán son of Máel Tuile who died in Italy in 843, according to a note in the Karlsruhe manuscript of Bede's ‘Computus’. The incipit to a fragmentary computus in the…...
Dúngal
Dúngal (d. p. 830), formerly thought to have been a composite figure of two or even three separate personalities associated with Saint-Denis, Pavia and Bobbio, was an Irish scholar-poet in the service of a succession of Carolingian monarchs. He is first mentioned in a…...
Esposito, Mario
Esposito, Mario (1887–1975), medievalist and Hiberno-Latinist, was born 7 September 1887 in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, third child and only son of Michele Esposito (qv), professor of music in the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and Natalia…...
Eustace, John Chetwode
Eustace, John Chetwode (1762/3–1815), catholic priest and writer, was born in Co. Kildare. Both his parents were reputed to belong to gentry families, his father's in that county. It seems likely that through his father, whose name is not known, he was descended from Benjamin…...