Chevron, Philip
Chevron, Philip (1957–2013), musician, songwriter and composer, was born Philip Ryan on 17 June 1957 in the Rotunda hospital, Dublin, the elder of two children of (Philip) Brendan Ryan (1927–97) and Christine Ryan (née LaGrue), both born in inner city Dublin. He grew up in Lorcan Drive…...
Clancy, Thomas (‘Tom’)
Clancy, Thomas (‘Tom’) (1924–90), folk singer and actor, was born 29 October 1924 on William St., Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, seventh child and second son among four sons and seven daughters of Robert Joseph Clancy, accountant, and Johanna Clancy (née McGrath), from a family of…...
Clare, Wallace George
Clare, Wallace George (1895–1963), priest and genealogist, was born 9 August 1895 in Ipswich, Suffolk, the only son of Frederick Clare, wine buyer, and Agnes Clare (née Keegan). His father died when Wallace was 2 years old, and his mother brought him and his sister up in…...
Clarke, Adam
Clarke, Adam (1760/62–1832), methodist minister and scholar, was born at Moybeg, near Maghera, Co. Londonderry, son of John Clarke (fl. 1762), schoolmaster, whose early marriage to a Miss McLean prevented him from completing a degree in…...
Clarke, Desmond
Clarke, Desmond (1907–79), librarian, historian, and writer, was born 2 July 1907 in Dublin, eldest son of John Clarke and Marcella Clarke (née Shaw). His entire career was with the RDS library, which he joined as an assistant in 1925. In…...
Clarke, Maud Violet
Clarke, Maud Violet (1892–1935), historian, was born 7 May 1892 in Belfast, second child and only daughter of Richard James Clarke, rector of Trinity church, Belfast, and Anne Nugent Clarke (née Jessop), of Mount Jessop, Co. Longford. In 1903 the family moved to Coole Glebe,…...
Clayton, Robert
Clayton, Robert (1695–1758), Church of Ireland bishop of Clogher, antiquary, and religious controversialist, was born in England, possibly at Fulwood, near Preston, Lancashire, the eldest of eight children and first of four sons of John Clayton (1657–1725) and his wife, Eleanor (…...
Clemens Scottus
Clemens Scottus (‘the Irishman’) (fl. c.800), scholar, was teacher at the palace school at Aachen under Charlemagne (d. 814) and his son Louis the Pious. A letter from Alcuin to Charlemagne, dated 797, refers to the presence of Irish scholars at the palace court, one of…...
Clerke, Agnes Mary
Clerke, Agnes Mary (1842–1907), historian of astronomy and scientific writer, was born 10 February 1842 in Skibbereen, Co. Cork, second child and younger daughter of John William Clerke, manager of the Provincial Bank, Bridge St., and his wife Catherine Mary, youngest sister of the…...
Clinch, James Bernard
Clinch, James Bernard (1770–1834), scholar and pamphleteer, was born 16 July 1770 in James's St., Dublin, fifth son of Joseph Clinch, a merchant originally from Ratoath, Co. Meath, and Mary Clinch (née Higgins) from Knockmane, Co. Roscommon. Educated at the Rev. Beragh's academy…...
Clive (Raftor), Catherine (Kitty)
Clive (Raftor), Catherine (Kitty) (1711–85), comic actress, singer, and writer, was probably born in London on 5 November 1711. Her father, William Raftor or Rafter, was a Kilkenny-born lawyer, who lost his claim on a large estate following his support of…...
Cloney, Seán
Cloney, Seán (1926–99), farmer, central figure of the Fethard-on-Sea controversy, and historian, was born 5 September 1926 in Co. Wexford, the only child of Michael Cloney (1866–1934), steward of Dungulph estate, and his second wife, Ellen (née Cavanagh), of Templederry, Gorey, Co.…...
Cluskey, Mary Elizabeth (‘May’)
Cluskey, Mary Elizabeth (‘May’) (1927–91), actress, was born 18 May 1927 at 83 St Ignatius Road, off Lower Dorset St., Dublin, one of three daughters and two sons of Francis (‘Frank’) Cluskey, butcher and trade unionist, and Elizabeth Mary Cluskey (née Millington). Her father, a close…...
Clyn, John
Clyn, John (d. 1349?), Franciscan friar and annalist, appears to have come from a minor gentry family of north Co. Kilkenny. Much of our evidence for his life is circumstantial and comes from internal evidence in his annals, ‘Annalium Hiberniae chronicon, ad annum MCCCXLIX’. ‘Clyn’ is…...
Cochrane, Robert
Cochrane, Robert (1844–1916), engineer, architect, and antiquarian, was born 21 July 1844 in Co. Down, eldest son of Hugh W. Cochrane, of an ancient Scottish-Danish family that came to Ireland in the seventeenth century. He graduated in engineering from…...
Cockburn, Sir George
Cockburn, Sir George (1764–1847), soldier, traveller, writer, and antiquary, was born 18 February 1764 in Dublin, only child of George Cockburn (d. 1775), a Scottish businessman who settled in Ireland in 1739 and married Ann (d. 1769), second of two children of Charles Caldwell,…...
Coffey, George
Coffey, George (1857–1916), archaeologist and nationalist, was born 2 July 1857 in Dublin, the third and youngest son of James Charles Coffey (d. 1880), county court judge for Londonderry, and his wife, Anna Maria Coffey (formerly Lee Trafford, née Wilkinson). Educated at…...
Coffey, Hugh Diarmid James
Coffey, Hugh Diarmid James (1888–1964), author and public servant, was born 24 December 1888 in Dublin, the only child of George Coffey (qv) (d. 1916) and his wife Jane Sophia Frances (d. 1921), daughter of Sir George Burdett L'Estrange. The…...
Cogan, Anthony
Cogan, Anthony (1824/5–72), catholic priest and diocesan historian, was born at Slane, Co. Meath, the first of the six sons of Thomas Cogan, a baker, and his wife Anne (née Sillary). Anne Cogan, whose family owned land at Nobber and Platten, was a protestant until her marriage.…...
Cogitosus
Cogitosus (fl. c.650), grandson of Aéd, was author of a Latin Life of St Brigit (qv) of Kildare written not much later than 650, possibly the earliest extant specimen of Irish hagiography. In the epilogue…...
Cole, Richard Lee
Cole, Richard Lee (1878–1963), methodist minister and historian, was born 24 January 1878 in Lurgan, Co. Armagh, second of five sons of the Rev. Richard Cole (1847–1925), methodist minister and editor of the Irish Christian Advocate, and Margaret Anne Cole (née Lee). He…...
Colgan, Eileen
Colgan, Eileen (1934–2014), actor, was born on 2 January 1934 in Dublin to Charles Colgan, a cabinet maker, and his wife Eileen (née McNamara). She was one of five children (three boys and two girls) and grew up on Russell Street on the north side of the city. Her father and an elder…...
Colgan, John
Colgan, John (1592?–1658), Franciscan friar and hagiographer, was born in Priestown in the parish of Donagh, Inishowen, Co. Donegal. Little is known for certain of his early years or family circumstances. He was a member of a well-established Donegal clerical family, the Mac Colgans of…...
Colmán
Colmán ( fl. 7th century?) is known only as the author of a letter to one Feradach, announcing that he had received certain improved texts a Romanis (‘from those in Rome’ or ‘from the Romani’). The texts mentioned were Isidore, ‘De ecclesiasticis officiis’ (the…...
Colmán
Colmán (fl. 9th cent.), the otherwise unknown author of two well-constructed poems in Virgilian hexameters. One of the poems recalls a miracle of St Brigit (qv); it was written at Rome (in Roma…...