Maguire, Thomas
Maguire, Thomas (1831–89), classicist and unionist, was born 24 January 1831 in Dublin, son of Thomas Maguire, a catholic businessman. He had two sisters, Eliza and Mary. Their father became a colonial magistrate in Mauritius, where Thomas junior, after education in Dublin, lived…...
Mahaffy, Sir John Pentland
Mahaffy, Sir John Pentland (1839–1919), classical scholar and provost of TCD, was born at Chapponnaire, near Vevey, Switzerland, on 26 February 1839, youngest of six children of Nathaniel Brindley Mahaffy, Church of Ireland clergyman, and his wife, Elizabeth (née Pentland).…...
Mailduf
Mailduf (d. c.675), teacher and scholar who gave his name to Malmesbury (Maeldufi urbem), is named by William of Malmesbury as the first teacher of Aldhelm (d. 709), the first Anglo-Saxon man of letters. William describes Mailduf as ‘an Irishman by birth, a…...
Malone, James
Malone, James (d. 1721), printer and bookseller, was of obscure origin. A catholic, he was admitted free of the city of Dublin in 1672, and of the guild of stationers in 1676. He came to prominence under James II (qv); when the…...
Manchán
Manchán (d. 665) of Liath Mancháin (Lemanaghan, Co. Offaly), Irish ecclesiastic and scholar, has been given contradictory genealogies, perhaps through confusion with one of the several ecclesiastics named Manchán/ Mainchín. The most reliable source states that his father was Sillán…...
Mangan, James Clarence
Mangan, James Clarence (1803–49), poet and translator, was probably born 1 May 1803 in Dublin, the second of five children of James Mangan (1765–1843) from Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, who may have been a hedge-school teacher, and Catherine (née Smith; 1771–1846), whose family owned…...
Marsden, William
Marsden, William (1754–1836), orientalist, numismatist, and secretary to the admiralty, was born 16 November 1754, probably in Verval, Co. Wicklow, youngest child among six sons and four daughters of John Marsden (d. 1801), a wealthy merchant in Dublin, who was one of the founders…...
Marstrander, Carl
Marstrander, Carl (1883–1965), Celtic scholar and linguist, was born 26 November 1883 in Kristiansand, Norway, son of Fredric Marstrander, principal of a local college, and his wife Christiane Brodtkorb Svendrup. His interest in languages was probably encouraged at an early age by a…...
Martin, James
Martin, James (1783–1860), poet, antiquary, and linguist, was born at Millbrook, near Oldcastle, Co. Meath, youngest son among several children of James Martin, small farmer, who owned several cabins and some plots of land in Oldcastle, and who, according to McCall (1896, 631),…...
Martinus (Martin) Hiberniensis
Martinus (Martin) Hiberniensis (‘the Irishman’) (819–75), scribe and master of the cathedral school at Laon, was one of the greatest of Irish Carolingian scholars. What little we know of Martin has been provided by himself in a manuscript of the Annals of Laon (‘Annales Laudunenses…...
McAllister, Randal
McAllister, Randal (c.1760?–p. 1794?), printer and United Irishman, was made a freeman of the city of Dublin in October 1786 and was then a stationer; nothing else is known of his background. The following year, on 23 October 1787, he was indicted for forging a…...
McCarthy, Janie
McCarthy, Janie (c.1890–1964), resistance worker and language teacher, was born in Bohereengowan, Killarney, Co. Kerry, the fourth of eight children, two boys and six girls, of Jeremiah McCarthy, mason, and Mary McCarthy, both of Co. Kerry. She appears to have been educated…...
McCreery, John
McCreery, John (c.1768–1832), printer and radical, was born in Burndunnet, near Strabane, Co. Tyrone, son of James McCreery (1745–1811), a Strabane printer. In the late 1780s John McCreery left Strabane for Liverpool, where he was apprenticed to George Wood, a leading local…...
McDonnell, Thomas
McDonnell, Thomas (d. 1809), printer and bookseller, was known as a young Dublin printer in 1763; nothing else is known of his early life. He was one of the master printers contracted to produce the Hibernian Journal in 1771, the year of its inception, and took part (August…...
McLaughlin, Hugh
McLaughlin, Hugh (1918–2006), publisher and inventor, was born 11 October 1918 in the family residence at Cavan Lower in Killygordon, Co. Donegal, the youngest of five sons and two daughters of James McLaughlin, stationmaster, and his wife Dorothy (née Rogers). He attended Dromore…...
Meyer, Kuno
Meyer, Kuno (1858–1919), Celtic scholar, philologist and translator, was born 20 December 1858 in Hamburg, north Germany, second among four children of Eduard Meyer, a classical historian of some repute, and Henrietta Meyer. Kuno first attended the Siemsenschen Privatschule and then the…...
Miller, Liam
Miller, Liam (1924–87), publisher, was born William Miller 24 April 1924 in Mountrath, Co. Laois, son of James Miller, victualler, and Elizabeth Miller (née Carbery). He studied architecture at UCD and travelled to London after 1945 to…...
Mo-Chuaróc
Mo-Chuaróc (fl. 7th cent.) of the moccu Neth Sémon, scholar of the pro-Roman faction within the Irish church, belonged as his name suggests (although his parentage is unknown) to a population group known as the Semuine, whose existence is attested in the genealogies and…...
Moloney, William Joseph
Moloney, William Joseph (1885–1968), linguist and journalist, was born at South Hill Cottage in Limerick city on 28 May 1885, son of Patrick Moloney, a commercial traveller, and his wife Kate (née McCoy). He was educated in the Redemptorist College there, and in 1900 he attained first…...
Monck (Monk, Molesworth), Mary
Monck (Monk, Molesworth), Mary (c.1678–1715), poet and translator, was one of the seventeen children, nine of whom survived to adulthood, born to Robert Molesworth (qv), landowner, writer, and politician, later 1st Viscount…...
Monteith, Charles Montgomery
Monteith, Charles Montgomery (1921–95), publisher, was born 9 February 1921 in Lisburn, Co. Antrim, son of James Monteith, draper, and Marian Monteith (née Montgomery). The family were devoutly presbyterian. Charles was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute – he later…...
Mooney, John Joseph
Mooney, John Joseph (1920–2000), farmer and publisher, was born 8 March 1920 in a nursing home at 4 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin, elder of two children of Patrick Mooney, farmer and cattle dealer, a native of Athy, Co. Kildare, who had inherited an uncle's farm at Kilmurry, Co.…...
Moore, Theophilus
Moore, Theophilus (c.1730–c.1809), almanack compiler, may have been born in King's Co. (Offaly), but details of his life are scant and conflicting. John McCall (qv) in his comprehensive ‘History of Irish almanacks’ (written 1878; unpublished…...
Mo-Sinnu (Sinlán, Sillán)
Mo-Sinnu (Sinlán, Sillán) (d. 610) of the moccu Mín, scribe and abbot of the monastery of Bangor, Co. Down, seems to have belonged to a little-known early tribal group from north-east Munster, called the Menraige. He is called by the shorter, latinised form of his name, Sinlán…...