Barbour, William Pirrie ('Bill')
Barbour, William Pirrie ('Bill') (1920–2009), teacher, and community and political activist, was born in Newtownards, Co. Down, son of Walter Terence Barbour, a director of the Combe Barbour engineering firm, and his wife Blanche (née Redman), whose father owned wine shops in London…...
Bladen, William
Bladen, William (c.1585–1663), printer and bookseller, was born in England, son of Thomas Bladen, yeoman of Derbyshire; nothing is known of his mother. In 1602 he became an apprentice in the London Stationers’ company, being freed on 7 May 1610. Thereafter he worked in…...
Coade, Thorold Francis
Coade, Thorold Francis (1896–1963), educational innovator and headmaster of Bryanston school, Dorset, was born 3 July 1896 at Glebe House, Syndenham Terrace, Brighton Rd, Rathgar, Dublin, only son of two children of the Rev. Charles Edward Coade, methodist minister, and Jessie…...
Crawford, William
Crawford, William (1843–1926), methodist minister and principal of Wesley College, was born 17 April 1843, son of William Crawford, a civil servant in Dublin Castle; no details of his mother are known. Educated at Wesleyan Connexional School (1850–59), he entered…...
Crofton, Sir John Wenman
Crofton, Sir John Wenman (1912–2009), physician, scientist and public health campaigner, was born on 27 March 1912 at the family home, 55 Merrion Square South, Dublin, the only son (between two sisters) of William Mervyn Crofton, physician and bacteriologist, and his wife Mary…...
Dowden, Richard
Dowden, Richard (1794–1861), politician, philanthropist, and naturalist, was born 12 April 1794 at Bandon, Co. Cork, second among seven children of Richard Dowden and Anne Dowden (née Keys). He originally studied medicine but was asked by the Jennings family to manage their magnesia and…...
Halliday, Fred (Simon Frederick Peter)
Halliday, Fred (Simon Frederick Peter) (1946–2009), academic, writer and public intellectual, was born on 22 February 1946 in Dublin, the youngest of three sons of Arthur Halliday, a quaker shoe manufacturer, and Margaret Mary 'Rita' Halliday (née Finigan), of Dundalk. He was educated…...
Heitler, Walter
Heitler, Walter (1904–81), theoretical physicist and philosopher, was born 2 January 1904 in Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany, son of Adolf Heitler, a Jewish engineering professor, and Ottilie Heitler (née Rudolf ). His largely classical early education left him with a lifelong interest…...
Henry, Robert Mitchell
Henry, Robert Mitchell (1873–1950), classicist and university administrator, was born 11 February 1873 in Belfast, son of Robert Mitchell Henry (1824–91), who was himself son of a Reformed Presbyterian minister, William Henry (1789–1852). Robert M. Henry sen., having started his…...
Hinde, John Wilfrid
Hinde, John Wilfrid (1916–97), photographer and postcard manufacturer, was born 17 May 1916 in Street, Somerset, England, into a close-knit Quaker family, who later became Christian Scientist. His great-grandfather was James Clark, co-founder of the Clark's footwear company. During…...
Jenkinson, David Stewart
Jenkinson, David Stewart (1928–2011), soil scientist, was born on 25 February 1928 in Hollywood Hospital, Los Angeles, California, USA, the eldest of three sons of Hugh McLoughlin Jenkinson, investor and businessman, and his wife Isabel Frances (née Glass). His father, an Irish…...
Keating, Justin Pascal
Keating, Justin Pascal (1930–2009), politician, veterinarian and television presenter, was born 7 January 1930 in a nursing home at 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin, younger of two sons of Seán Keating (qv), artist, and…...
McGahern, John
McGahern, John (1934–2006), writer, was born in Dublin on 12 November 1934, eldest of seven children (two sons and five daughters) of Francis McGahern, garda sergeant and veteran of the Irish war of independence, from Gowna, Co. Cavan, and his wife Susan (née McManus), schoolteacher, a…...
McGrath, William
McGrath, William (1916–91), loyalist and paedophile, was born 11 December 1916 in Belfast, son of Abraham McGrath and Jane McGrath (née Warrington). McGrath came from a methodist background; in later years he worked with presbyterian and Free Presbyterian churches while operating as a…...
O'Brien, Donal Cruise
O'Brien, Donal Cruise (1941–2012), political scientist, was born in Dublin on 4 July 1941, eldest of two daughters and a son of Conor Cruise O'Brien (qv), diplomat, politician and writer, and his first wife Christine (née Foster). He…...
O'Brien, Thomas
O'Brien, Thomas (1914–74), poet, publisher, and Spanish civil war veteran, was born 24 April 1914 in Dublin, eldest child among two sons and two daughters of Hugh O'Brien and Mary (‘Polly’) O'Brien (née Berkeley). Having attended local Christian Brothers' schools, he left formal…...
Ó Glaisne, Risteárd
Ó Glaisne, Risteárd (1927–2003), teacher, ecumenist and journalist, was born 2 September 1927 in Bandon, Co. Cork, the third of four children of George William Giles and his wife Sara Jane (née Vickery). He attended Bandon Grammar School and Trinity College Dublin (TCD), graduating…...
O'Malley, Pamela (Kathleen Mary)
O'Malley, Pamela (Kathleen Mary) (1929–2006), bohemian, radical and educationalist, was born in Dublin on 12 July 1929, daughter of Patrick O'Malley, Limerick tea, wine and spirit importer, and his wife Kathleen (née Bonass). Donough O'Malley…...
Roddie, Ian Campbell
Roddie, Ian Campbell (1928–2011), physiologist and academic, was born on 1 December 1928 in Belfast, third of four sons of J. R. Wesley Roddie (d. 1953), a methodist minister, and his wife Mary Hill (née Wilson; d. 1973); the four brothers all entered the medical profession. Rev.…...
Sandford, Irene
Sandford, Irene (1937–2005), singer, was born in east Belfast on 11 January 1937, eldest child of Francis Sandford, who owned a hairdressing salon, and his wife Meta (née Nesbitt). She had two younger sisters and a younger brother. She attended Belmont and Strandtown primary schools…...
Synge, John Lighton
Synge, John Lighton (1897–1995), mathematician and theoretical physicist, was born 23 March 1897 in Dublin, youngest among one daughter and three sons of Edward Synge (1859–1939), then land agent in Kingscourt, Co. Cavan, and his wife Ellen Frances (1861–1935), daughter of the…...
Teate, Faithful
Teate, Faithful (d. 1660) puritan minister and vice-provost of TCD, was born around the start of the seventeenth century. Little is known of his background but he was probably born in England, possibly in Kent, before coming to…...
Threlkeld, Caleb
Threlkeld, Caleb (1676–1728), doctor, minister of religion, and botanist, was born 31 May 1676 in Keybergh or Keibergh in the parish of Kirkoswald, Cumberland, England, third among three sons of Thomas Threlkeld and Bridget Threlkeld (née Brown), who both died in 1712. He also had three…...
Tyndall, John
Tyndall, John (1820–93), scientist and mountaineer, was born 2 August 1820 in Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow, only son among two children of John Tyndall (1792–1847) and Sarah Tyndall (née McAssey; d. 1867). His father came from a family of small landowners in Co. Kilkenny, acted as…...
Walton, Ernest Thomas Sinton
Walton, Ernest Thomas Sinton (1903–95), scientist, educator, and Nobel prize laureate, was born 6 October 1903 in Abbeyside, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, elder of two children of the Rev. John Arthur Walton and Anna Elizabeth Walton (née Sinton). His father, a methodist minister, was born…...