Josephus Scottus
Josephus Scottus (‘the Irishman’) (d. c.794), monk, poet, and biblical exegete, was one of the many Irish peregrini in the western Carolingian empire. It is possible that he belonged to the Cianachta Breg (in the present Co. Louth). He was educated at Clonmacnoise…...
Joy, Francis
Joy, Francis (1697–1790), notary, printer, paper manufacturer, and founder of the Belfast News Letter, was born in 1697 at Killead, Co. Antrim, the younger son of Richard Joy, a prosperous presbyterian farmer, and his wife Jane (née Ellis) of Carrickfergus. He settled in…...
Joy, Robert
Joy, Robert (1722–85), printer, manufacturer, and philanthropist, was born probably in Belfast, second son of Francis Joy (qv), attorney, paper manufacturer, and printer, and Margaret Joy (née Martin). He was named for his maternal…...
Kavanagh, Peter Paul
Kavanagh, Peter Paul (1916–2006), writer and critic, was born 19 March 1916 in Mucker, Iniskeen, Co. Monaghan, youngest of ten children of James Kavanagh, shoemaker and small farmer, and his wife Bridget (née Quinn). His godfather was his elder brother, the poet…...
Kenny, Kevin John
Kenny, Kevin John (1881–1954), advertising pioneer, commercial manager and publisher, was born on 22 June 1881 at 12 Upper Dorset Street, Dublin, one of eight children of Michael C. Kenny, a lithographic printer and Fenian, and Catherine Kenny (née Fleming), a book-folder (cloth…...
Kidd, James
Kidd, James (1761–1834), presbyterian minister and Hebraist, was born 6 November 1761 in Loughbrickland, Co. Down, youngest of three sons of impoverished parents, who may have been William Kidd and Agnes Kidd (née Allan). When his father died a few months after James was born, his…...
Kilmartin, Terence (‘Terry’) Kevin
Kilmartin, Terence (‘Terry’) Kevin (1922–91), intelligence officer and literary editor, was born 10 January 1922 at Church Road, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, seventh of eight children of Ambrose Joseph Kilmartin, deputy forestry commissioner and veteran of the 1916 rising, and Eva…...
King, Cecil Harmsworth
King, Cecil Harmsworth (1901–87), publisher, was born 20 February 1901 at Poynter's Hall, Totteridge, Hertfordshire, England (home of his grandmother, Geraldine Harmsworth (qv)), second son and fifth child among seven children of…...
King, Jeremiah
King, Jeremiah (1868–1927), historian, printer, and publisher, was born 11 February 1868 in Groin, in the parish of Aghadoe, Co. Kerry, elder of two sons of Laurence King, carpenter, of Currow, and Ellen King (née Counihan), farmer, of Madam's Height, Groin. Early in King's life…...
King, Sir Lucas White
King, Sir Lucas White (1856–1925), Indian civil servant and Oriental scholar, was born 28 September 1856 in Madras, India, first among three sons and three daughters who survived infancy, of Henry King, a Drogheda-born member of the Indian Medical Service, and his wife Sophie…...
Kissane, Edward Joseph
Kissane, Edward Joseph (1886–1959), priest and biblical scholar, was born 14 May 1886 in Lisselton, Ballybunion, Co. Kerry. He was educated at St Michael's College, Listowel, and St Brendan's Seminary, Killarney. In September 1903 he entered St Patrick's College, Maynooth, where…...
Knowles, James
Knowles, James (1759?–1840), lexicographer, was born in Cork, the son of John Knowles of Dublin, and his wife Frances, daughter of Thomas Sheridan (qv) (1687–1738) of Quilca, and sister of …...
Lathcen (Laidcenn)
Lathcen (Laidcenn) (d. 661), son of Báeth Bandach, monk of Clonfertmulloe (Co. Laois) and biblical scholar, produced an abbreviated version of Gregory the Great's ‘Moralia’ on Job, a commentary in thirty-five books, written c.595. Lathcen's abbreviation in three books is…...
Lawrence, John Fortune
Lawrence, John Fortune (1833–97), sporting merchant and publisher, was born 13 January 1833 in Dublin, the eldest of six brothers and five sisters (three of each reaching adulthood) of William Lawrence (d. 1887), a clerk of works at the General Post Office (GPO), and his wife Elizabeth…...
Lawson, John
Lawson, John (1708/9–1759), preacher, classical scholar and professor of oratory, was born in Magherafelt, Co. Londonderry, the son of the Rev. Alexander Lawson, curate of Omagh, Co. Tyrone. He was educated at the school of Mr MacMahon in Monaghan, before entering…...
Leathley, Joseph
Leathley, Joseph (d. 1757), ‘college binder’, printer, and bookseller, joined the Dublin printers, guild in July 1719, having been sworn a freeman of the city earlier in the year. He initially undertook a small number of joint publishing ventures with other members of the trade in…...
Lees, William Nassau
This is a co-subject for the entry on Lees, Sir Harcourt. View the original entry....
Lhuyd (Lhwyd, Lloyd), Edward
Lhuyd (Lhwyd, Lloyd), Edward (1660?–1709), Celtic philologist and naturalist, was born c.1660 in Cardiganshire, Wales, or near Oswestry, Shropshire, the illegitimate son of Edward Lloyd of Llanvorda and Bridget Pryse, both from landowning families. Lhuyd entered Jesus College,…...
Lloyd, Edward
Lloyd, Edward (fl. 1700–1732), coffee house proprietor, publisher, and writer, was born in England and probably moved to Dublin in the 1690s. Nothing is known of his parents. A namesake, Edward Lloyd (d. 1713), founded (c.1688) Lloyd's coffee house in London, which…...
Loftus, Dudley
Loftus, Dudley (1618–95), Oriental scholar and jurist, was born at Rathfarnham castle, Co. Dublin, a son of Sir Adam Loftus, vice-treasurer of Ireland, and his wife Jane, daughter of Walter Vaughan of Golden Grove, Carmarthenshire, Wales. He received his …...
Logan, Michael J. (Ó Lócháin, Micheál)
Logan, Michael J. (Ó Lócháin, Micheál) (1836–99), editor, publisher, and ‘father of the Gaelic language movement’ in America (Ford, 1899), was born 29 September 1836 at Currach Doire (Curraghderry), Baile an Mhuilinn (Milltown), near Tuam, Co. Galway, son of Patrick Logan, a small…...
Luce, John Victor
Luce, John Victor (1920–2011), classicist, was born on 21 May 1920 in Dublin, the elder of two sons of Arthur Aston Luce (qv), then professor of moral philosophy in TCD, and his wife Lilian Mary (née Thompson), a philosophy graduate…...
Lynch, Patrick (Ó Loingsigh, Pádraig
Lynch, Patrick (Ó Loingsigh, Pádraig ) (1754/7–1818), schoolmaster and scholar was born 17 March in either 1754 or 1757, in Quin, Co. Clare. He attended a hedge school for his early education in Ennistymon, Co. Clare, where his teacher, Donnchadh ‘an Chairn’ Ó Mathghamhna, taught Latin…...
Mac An Lega, Uilliam (Iollann)
Mac An Lega, Uilliam (Iollann) (d. p.1475), scribe and author-translator of many texts, belonged, as his name suggests, to an hereditary medical family, but Uilliam himself seems to have composed or copied nothing of a medical nature. He has been accurately described as…...
Macan, Turner
Macan, Turner (1792–1836), soldier, linguist and translator, was born on 30 September 1792 at Kilbrogan, Bandon, Co. Cork, the second son of seven children (three sons and four daughters) of Robert Macan (1750–1808), originally of Carrive, Co. Armagh, and his wife Hannah (née…...