Coyne, William Patrick
Coyne, William Patrick (1866–1904), statistician, was born 18 May 1866 at Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, the second son of a merchant, Edward Coyne, and his wife, Maria (née Hayes). He was educated at St Stanislaus’ College, Tullabeg, and St Ignatius’ College, Temple Street, Dublin, from…...
Crosbie, Richard
Crosbie, Richard (1756?–1800?), balloonist, was born in Co. Wicklow, second son among five children of Sir Paul Crosbie, 4th baronet and barrack master at Bray, Co. Wicklow, and Mary Crosbie (née Daniel), an Englishwoman. His elder brother was (Sir)…...
Crossley, Hastings
This is a co-subject for the entry on Crossley, Francis (‘Frank’) William. View the original entry....
Crotty, Raymond Dominick
Crotty, Raymond Dominick (1925–94), economist, radical, author, and opponent of European integration, was born 22 January 1925 at Parliament St., Kilkenny, one of four sons and five daughters of Raymond Crotty, baker and shopkeeper of Kilkenny, and Elizabeth Crotty (née Keoghan). His…...
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,…...
Darby, John Patrick
Darby, John Patrick (1941–2012), social and political scientist, was born on 18 November 1940 at 149 Springfield Road, Belfast, where his parents Sadie (née Mackle) and Patrick Darby ran a pub. When he was a young child his family moved to Portrush, Co. Antrim, where he attended St…...
Dargan, William
Dargan, William (1799–1867), engineer, was born 28 February 1799 in Co. Carlow. His parents were Patrick and Elizabeth Dargan, his father being a well-to-do farmer who was a tenant of Lord Portarlington. Much of William's early life is obscure. Likewise the exact place of birth is…...
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…...
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…...
Doyne, William Thomas
Doyne, William Thomas (1823–77), railway engineer, was born in April 1823 at Old Leighlin, Co. Carlow, second son of the Rev. Thomas Doyne and Sophia Doyne (née Armstrong). At the age of 16 he entered the University of Durham and studied engineering for a year. In 1840 he was…...
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…...