Boucher, Edgar William John ('Billy')
Boucher, Edgar William John ('Billy') (1918–2003), musician and broadcaster, was born 5 December 1918 in Dublin, the son of George Alexander Boucher, a plumber, and his wife Sarah Maria (née Jones), a dressmaker; he had two older brothers and two or three older sisters. The family…...
Boucicault, Dion Lardner
Boucicault, Dion Lardner (1820–90), playwright and actor, was born 27 December 1820 at Gardiner St., Dublin, probably the illegitimate son of Dr Dionysius Lardner (qv), a TCD scientist, and…...
Bouhéreau, Élie (Elias)
Bouhéreau, Élie (Elias) (1643–1719), huguenot bibliophile, librarian, cleric, diarist, and administrator, was born 5 May 1643 at La Rochelle, France, son of Élie Bouhéreau, pastor of Fontenay, and Blandine Bouhéreau (née Richard). The family was of the upper middle class. He was…...
Bourchier, James David
Bourchier, James David (1850–1920), journalist and Balkan intermediary, was born 18 December 1850 at Baggotstown, Bruff, Co. Limerick, fourth son among six children of John Bourchier, landowner and JP of Baggotstown, and Sarah Bourchier (…...
Bourke, Patrick John
Bourke, Patrick John (1883–1932), actor-manager and dramatist, was born at 34 Lower Dorset St., Dublin. His father, Laurence Bourke, died about 1892 and his mother, a native of Newbridge, Co. Kildare, three years later. He spent the next six years living with relatives in west Wicklow…...
Bourke, Patrick Lorcan
This is a co-subject for the entry on de Búrca, Séamus. View the original entry....
Boyce, James
Boyce, James (1909–66), actor and broadcaster, was born on 17 March 1909 in Belfast, the oldest of three sons of Hugh Boyce, a coachbuilder, and his wife Ellen (née Hayes), a dressmaker before marriage. The family, who were Christian Brethren in religion, lived in Rosebury Road, Ormeau…...
Boyd, Ernest Augustus
Boyd, Ernest Augustus (1887–1946), writer, journalist, and literary critic, was born 28 June 1887 at Westbury Terrace, Dublin, the son of James Robert Boyd, a civil servant, and Rose Boyd (née Kempston). Educated privately by a French tutor and later at schools in Germany and…...
Boyd, Henry
Boyd, Henry (1749?–1832), clergyman, poet, and translator, was born in Co. Tyrone, son of Charles Boyd, farmer; nothing is known of his mother. Educated by Mr Davison, he entered TCD as a sizar (June 1770), gained a scholarship (1773),…...
Boyd, Hugh Macauley
Boyd, Hugh Macauley (1746–94), political essayist and journalist, was born 6 or 16 April (or October) 1746 in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, or Ship St., Dublin, second son among two sons and two daughters of Alexander Macauley (McAuley) (d. 1766) of Dublin and Glenville, Co. Antrim, MP…...
Boyd, John
Boyd, John (1912–2002), radio producer and playwright, was born 19 July 1912 at 9 Baskin Street, in a working-class area of east Belfast, the first of three children (two boys and a girl) of Robert Boyd, a fireman on steam engines and later an engine driver, and Jane Boyd (née Leeman).…...
Boyd, Stephen
Boyd, Stephen (1928–77), actor, was born William Millar 4 July 1928 at Glengormley near Belfast. He took his mother's maiden name for the stage, and became a US citizen under that name in 1963. He began acting with the Carnmoney Amateur Dramatic Society, making his professional…...
Boylan, Clare Catherine
Boylan, Clare Catherine (1948–2006), journalist and writer, was born 21 April 1948 in Dublin, the youngest of three daughters of Patrick Boylan, a clerk, and his wife Evelyn (née Selby). Clare's mother felt trapped by the limitations that domesticity imposed on women in 1950s Ireland…...
Boylan, Patricia
This is a co-subject for the entry on Boylan, Henry Joseph. View the original entry....
Boylan, Patrick Joseph
Boylan, Patrick Joseph (1879–1974), priest, biblical scholar, and Egyptologist, was born 2 December 1879 in Barrowhouse, near Athy, Co. Kildare, son of Patrick Boylan, a teacher at Shanganamore national school, and his wife Anne (née Walker), of Queen's County (Laois).…...
Boyle, Hilary Joyce
Boyle, Hilary Joyce (1899–1988), journalist, broadcaster, and activist, was born 25 October 1899 in south London, second child of Gerald Alexander Thompson, vicar of St Gregory's church, Canterbury, and canon of Canterbury cathedral, and Winifred Helen Thompson (née Hopkins), and…...
Boyse, Samuel
Boyse, Samuel (1708–49), poet, translator, and hack writer, was born in Dublin in 1708, son of the Rev. Joseph Boyse (qv), the English-born presbyterian theologian, pamphleteer, and minister to the Wood St. church, Dublin. Educated…...
Bradford, Roy Hamilton
Bradford, Roy Hamilton (1920–98), journalist and politician, was born 7 July 1920 in the schoolmaster's house attached to the Church of Ireland church on the Ligoniel Road, Belfast, eldest of three sons of Joseph Hamilton Bradford, schoolmaster, from Rockcorry, Co. Monaghan, and…...
Bradshaw, Henry
Bradshaw, Henry (1831–86), bibliophile, librarian, and scholar, was born 2 February 1831 at 2 Artillery Place, Finsbury Square, London, third son of Joseph Hoare Bradshaw (d. 1845), a native of Mile Cross, near Newtownards, Co. Down, and a partner in the city banking firm of Barnett…...
Brambell, Wilfrid
Brambell, Wilfrid (1912–85), actor, was born Henry Wilfrid Brambell 22 March 1912 at 6 Edenvale Road, Rathgar, Dublin, youngest of three sons of Henry Brambell, clerk in Guinness's brewery, and Edith Brambell (née Marks), an opera singer. He made his first stage appearance at the age of…...
Brayden, William John Henry
Brayden, William John Henry (1865–1933), journalist, was born 13 September 1865 in Armagh city, son of William Henry Brayden, pawnbroker and later manager of the Ulster Gazette, and Eliza Brayden (née Windrum). He had at least three siblings. The family was Church of…...
Breatnach, Deasún
Breatnach, Deasún (1921–2007), journalist, author and activist, was born 2 December 1921, probably in Belgrave Square, Dublin, the eldest child of three sons and a daughter of Kevin Walsh, a solicitor, and his wife Gertrude (née Andrews). His grandfather, James J. Walsh, also a…...
Breen, Dermot H.
Breen, Dermot H. (1924–78), founder of Cork International Film Festival and film censor, was born 18 August 1924 in Waterford, sixth child of James Breen and Brigid Breen. He was educated in Cork at the Presentation Brothers College and at the Provincial College. Initially a…...
Brenan, John
Brenan, John (1768–1830), physician and satirist, was born March 1768, eldest of six children of a minor landed catholic family from Ballaghide, Co. Carlow. The details of his early life are unknown. In 1793 he wrote epigrams and short verse for Dublin magazines. Claiming to have…...
Brenan, Joseph
Brenan, Joseph (1828–57), Young Ireland revolutionary, poet, and journalist, was born 17 November 1828 in Cork city; nothing is known of his parents. He spent some of his early childhood in Skibbereen and was educated at St Vincent's seminary, Cork. He joined the Cork Historical…...