Adair, Sir Robert Alexander Shafto
Adair, Sir Robert Alexander Shafto (1811–86), 2nd baronet, Baron Waveney, MP and author, was born 25 August 1811, elder son of Sir Robert Shafto Adair (1st baronet, of Flixton Hall, Suffolk, and Ballymena, Co. Antrim) and Elizabeth Adair (née Strode), and educated at Harrow (1823–8).…...
Adams, William George Stewart
Adams, William George Stewart (1874–1966), economist, academic, and public servant, was born 8 November 1874 at Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland, youngest child of John Adams, headmaster of St John's Grammar School, Hamilton, and Margaret, daughter of John Stewart, Glasgow cotton…...
Adrian (Bor), Max
Adrian (Bor), Max (1903–73), actor, was born 1 November 1903 in Ireland, the son of Edward Norman Cavendish Bor, a Bank of Ireland agent (or manager), and Mabel Lloyd (née Thornton). The family lived successively at Maryborough, Callan, and Waterford. Max was educated at Portora…...
Aickin (Aikin), Francis
Aickin (Aikin), Francis (c.1736–1812) and his younger brother James (d. 1803), actors, were born in Dublin and apprenticed to their father, a weaver, before leaving him to begin their acting careers. Francis joined Philip Lewis's company of strolling players in 1754; his…...
Aickin, James
This is a co-subject for the entry on Aickin (Aikin), Francis. View the original entry....
Ainsworth, Thomas Joseph ('Joe')
Ainsworth, Thomas Joseph (Joe; ‘Two Gun Joe’) (1927–2015), garda, was born 17 May 1927 at his parents’ home at Davitt’s Terrace, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, the elder of two sons of Harry (Henry) Ainsworth, a victualler, and his wife Margaret (née Feeney). Ainsworth was…...
Allen, Dave
Allen, Dave (1936–2005), comedian, was born David Edward Tynan O'Mahony on 6 July 1936 in a nursing home at 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin, youngest of three sons of (Gerard John) Cullen Tynan O'Mahony (nicknamed 'Pussy'), journalist, manager of the Irish Times, and raconteur,…...
Anthony, Richard Sydney
Anthony, Richard Sydney (1875–1962), trade unionist and politician, was born 20 October 1875 in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, son of John Anthony, printer, and Mary Anthony (née Clancy or Clooney). Little is known about his early life or education except that the family moved to Cork when…...
Arden, John
Arden, John (1930–2012), playwright and novelist, was born on 26 October 1930 in Barnsley, Yorkshire, to Charles Arden, a manager in a glass manufacturer, and Annie (‘Nancy’) Elizabeth Arden (née Layland), a primary school teacher. He was educated at the local primary school, Terringham…...
Arensberg, Conrad Maynadier
Arensberg, Conrad Maynadier (1910–97), anthropologist and sociologist, was born 12 September 1910 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the eldest of the four sons of Charles F. C. Arensberg, attorney, from a steel and banking dynasty, and his wife, Emily Wright Maynadier Arensberg (née…...
Ashbury, Joseph
Ashbury, Joseph (1638–1720), actor and manager, was born in London of a good family and educated at Eton. He became an army officer, one of those who, in search of a political settlement, seized Dublin castle in December 1659. After the restoration of the monarchy he received…...
Astley, Philip
Astley, Philip (1742–1814), horse-trainer and showman, was born 8 January 1742 in Newcastle under Lyme, England, son of Edward Astley, cabinetmaker. After a career of great gallantry in the cavalry, he set up a show in Lambeth, London, where he exhibited feats of horsemanship. Other…...
Ball, Edward Francis Allen Preston
Ball, Edward Francis Allen Preston (1916–87?), murderer, was born on 9 May 1916 at 40 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, the younger son of Charles Preston Ball (d. 1957), a Dublin medical doctor who seems to have been the son of William James Ball (1830?–1895), clergyman, Indian…...
Barker, Robert
Barker, Robert (1739–1806), inventor of the panorama, was apparently from a respectable family, though nothing is known of his life until 15 February 1764, when ‘Mr Robert Barker of Kells in the county of Meath’ married in Dublin (Freeman's Journal, 18 Feb. 1764). His wife…...
Barnes, Michael James
Barnes, Michael James (1932–2008), festival director, was born in Peckham, south London, England, on 31 October 1932. His parents were Robert Barnes and Winifred Barnes (née Dee), who married in 1931. In 1945 he won a scholarship to Alleyn's School in Dulwich, an independent school…...
Barr, Andrew (Andy)
Barr, Andrew (Andy) (1913–2003), trade unionist and communist, was born 23 September 1913 at 29 Cluan Place, off Mountpottinger Road, Ballymacarrett, Belfast, second child among two sons and five daughters (two other children died in infancy) of Andrew Barr (d. 1986, aged 98), a…...
Barrington, George
Barrington, George (1755–1804), celebrated pickpocket, was born George Waldron in October 1755 at Maynooth, Co. Kildare, son of Henry Waldron, silversmith, and his wife, a mantua-maker and midwife whose maiden name was Naish. Educated locally, he benefited from the patronage of a…...
Barry, Denis
Barry, Denis (1883–1923), Irish Volunteer, commandant of the Cork No. 1 Brigade and trade unionist, was born on 13 July 1883, in Riverstick, Cullen, Co. Cork, the son of John Barry, farmer and Nora Barry (née Sullivan). Denis was born on the family farm, the second youngest of eight…...
Barry, Spranger
Barry, Spranger (1717–77), actor and theatre manager, was born in November 1717, in Skinner Row, Dublin, the second son of William Barry, a wealthy silversmith, and Catherine Barry (née Sprainger). He was educated in Dublin and apprenticed to his father's trade; with his first wife…...
Bastable, Charles Francis
Bastable, Charles Francis (1855–1945), economist and academic, was born in Charleville, Co. Cork, the only son of the Rev. Robert Bastable, rector of Knock Temple and Kilbolane, and his wife Louisa, daughter of a Dr Little of Sligo. Educated at Fermoy College and…...
Baugh (Bagh, Bough, Boghe), William
Baugh (Bagh, Bough, Boghe), William (c.1587–1619?), pirate, was probably born in England. He was a ‘rear-admiral’ of the confederation of North Atlantic pirates c.1611, when many were sheltering in Ireland from the attempts of governments to eradicate piracy in…...
Beattie, John (‘Jack’)
Beattie, John (‘Jack’) (1886–1960), socialist and trade unionist, was born 14 April 1886 into a presbyterian family in Ballymacarrett, Belfast, son of Robert Beattie, dealer, and Eliza Beattie (née Downey). He left school aged 13 and worked at the Belfast Ropeworks before joining…...
Beddy, James Patrick
Beddy, James Patrick (1900–76), public servant and economist, was born 28 September 1900 in Cobh, Co. Cork, the eldest son and second of the three children of Thomas Robert Beddy, RIC constable, and Mary Beddy (née Barry), of Macroom, Co…...
Bergin, Patrick
Bergin, Patrick (1913–91), trade unionist and republican, was born in Carlow on 6 February 1913, one of nine children of a railway signalman. His mother, an ardent republican and a devout catholic, came from a Co. Westmeath family of shopkeepers and small farmers. Having been…...
Bernard, James Francis
Bernard, James Francis (1850–1924), 4th earl of Bandon, landowner and kidnapping victim, was born 12 September 1850, the son of Francis Bernard (b. 1810), 3rd earl of Bandon, and Catherine Mary (née Whitmore), daughter of Thomas Whitmore, of Apley Park, Shropshire. The Bernard family…...