Walsh, John
Walsh, John (1835–81), poet and schoolmaster, was born 1 April 1835 at Belville Park, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford, son of William Walsh, steward of Mr Poer of Belville Park; nothing is known of his mother. He was educated at Cappoquin national school and worked there as a monitor and…...
Walsh, John Joseph
Walsh, John Joseph (1916–88), industrialist and public servant, was born 31 August 1916 in Ballyheigue, Co. Kerry, third child of Patrick Walsh, schoolteacher, and Mary Walsh (née Halliden). He was educated at St Brendan's, Killarney, Co. Kerry, and graduated…...
Walsh, Sr Patricia
Walsh, Sr Patricia (1942–2015), missionary nurse, was born Anna Maria Catherine Walsh on 23 September 1942 in Portlick, Glasson, Co. Westmeath, the eldest of three girls and a boy, to Michael Walsh, a fisherman, and his wife Bridget (née Nolan). Having attended Glasson primary school (…...
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…...
Warde, Frances Teresa (Sister Mary Frances Teresa)
Warde, Frances Teresa (Sister Mary Frances Teresa) (1810–84), Sister of Mercy and educator, was born in Belbrook House, Abbeyleix, Queen’s Co. (Laois) in 1810, the youngest of six children (three sons and three daughters) of John Warde, a merchant, and Mary Warde (née Maher). Educated…...
Ward, James
Ward, James (1851–1924), artist and educator, was born 17 November 1851 at Gavins Buildings, Shankill Road, Belfast, eldest son of James Ward, house painter. He was educated at local schools and received private art lessons before attending the Government School of Art, Belfast. He…...
Ware, William
Ware, William (1757–1826), organist, teacher, and concert promoter, was born 17 January 1757 at Armagh city; nothing is known of his parents. It was to Ware that Edward Bunting (qv) was apprenticed in 1784. Trained in Armagh cathedral…...
Waterhouse, Gilbert
Waterhouse, Gilbert (1888–1977), academic, was born at Hipperholme, Yorkshire, on 15 July 1888, son of Harold Waterhouse of Tarleton, Lancashire. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, renowned for its rigorous teaching of modern languages, and St John's College, Cambridge,…...
Watts, William Arthur ('Bill')
Watts, William Arthur ('Bill') (1930–2010), scientist and provost of TCD, was born on 26 May 1930 in Upper Mayor Street, in Dublin's East Wall area, his maternal grandparents' home. His mother, Bess Dickinson, had moved to Dublin from England as a child, and in 1925 married William…...
Welch, Robert Anthony ('Bob')
Welch, Robert Anthony ('Bob') (1947–2013), academic, poet, critic and writer, was born on 25 November 1947 in Cork City, to Patrick Welch, a factory worker at the Dunlop Rubber Company, and Kathleen Welch (née Kearney). He was educated by the Presentation Brothers at Coláiste…...
Welsh, Elizabeth
Welsh, Elizabeth (1843–1921), pioneering woman academic and mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, was born 31 March 1843 in Co. Down, eldest among four daughters of John Welsh of Gransha, Kircubbin, Co. Down, a farmer on over a hundred acres, probably prosperous and possibly also a…...
West, Robert
West, Robert (d. 1770), painter, draughtsman, and art teacher, was born in Waterford city, the son of an alderman. Little is known about his early years, except that he studied in Paris (c.1735) under François Boucher and Carle Vanloo, and supposedly earned the first…...
West, Trevor
West, Trevor (1938–2012), mathematician, politician and sportsman, was born on 8 May 1938 in Cork, the eldest of four sons of Timothy Roberts West, headmaster of Midleton College, Co. Cork, and Dorothy Trevor West (née McNeill), of Charleston, Ballinacurra, Co. Cork, who was CEO of…...
White, Henrietta Margaret
White, Henrietta Margaret (1856–1936), principal of Alexandra College, Dublin, horticulturist, and social activist, was eldest child among three daughters and one son of Henry Charles White (1818–1903), of Charleville, Queen's Co. (Laois), JP…...
White, Stephen
White, Stephen (1574?–1646/7), Jesuit priest, academic, and antiquary, was born in Clonmel, the son of Pierce White. His was a remarkable family, two of his brothers also being priests: James was vicar apostolic of Waterford and Lismore and Thomas…...
White, Thomas
White, Thomas (1556–1622), Jesuit and founder of Irish colleges in Europe, was the son of Pierce White of Clonmel and was born into one of the most staunchly catholic families in Ireland. A younger brother Stephen (qv) was a celebrated…...
Whitty, Ellen (Sister Mary Vincent)
Whitty, Ellen (Sister Mary Vincent) (1819–92), Sister of Mercy, foundress, and educator, was born 1 March 1819 in Poldharrigge, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, daughter of Robert Whitty and Mary Whitty. She had two sisters and three brothers. Educated in Enniscorthy and the Academy of…...
Whitty, Sophia St John
Whitty, Sophia St John (1877–1924), woodcarver, teacher, and cooperativist, was born 4 November 1877 at 69 Upper Leeson St., Dublin, daughter of Richard Lawrence Whitty, gentleman, of that address, and his wife Jane Alicia, second daughter of Hugh Palliser Hickman (1805–83),…...
Whyte, John Henry
Whyte, John Henry (1928–90), academic, was born 30 April 1928 in Penang, Malaya (Malaysia), son of William Henry Whyte, military officer, and Dorothy Gordon Whyte (née Hibbard), daughter of an American industrial metallurgist; he had one sibling, a younger sister. He was educated…...
Whyte, Laurence
Whyte, Laurence (1685?–1752/3), poet and teacher of mathematics, was probably son of Christopher White, a substantial catholic tenant farmer from Ballymore, Co. Westmeath, and his wife Anne Dalton. The family had been transplanted to Connacht under the Cromwellian acts of settlement…...
Whyte, Samuel
Whyte, Samuel (1733–1811), schoolmaster, was born on board a ship near Liverpool, the illegitimate son of either Solomon Whyte or his brother Richard, the deputy governor of the tower of London; his mother died shortly after childbirth. His first cousin was Frances Chamberlain, who…...
Williams, (Thomas) Desmond
Williams, (Thomas) Desmond (1921–87), historian, was born 26 May 1921 in Dublin, the only child of William John Williams, later professor of education in UCD, and his wife Angela (née Murnaghan), member of a prominent legal and political…...
Wilmot (De Bhilmot), Séamus
Wilmot (De Bhilmot), Séamus (1902–77), educator, theatre administrator, and writer in Irish, was born 4 May 1902 in Listowel, Co. Kerry, fourth child and only son of Edward Wilmot, blacksmith, and Mary Wilmot (née Dillon). He was educated locally at St Michael's College, Listowel, and…...
Wilson, Thomas
Wilson, Thomas (1916–2001), economist, was born on 23 June 1916 on the family farm at Ballylagan, Ballynure, Co. Antrim, the only child of John Bright Wilson (d. 1948), and his wife Margaret (née Ellison). His father, while keeping the farm, established a grocery and animal feed…...
Windle, Sir Bertram Alan Coghill
Windle, Sir Bertram Alan Coghill (1858–1929), scholar, anatomist, archaeologist, and university president, was born 8 May 1858 at Mayfield, Staffordshire, England, eldest son of the Rev. Samuel Allan Windle and Sydney Katherine Windle (née Coghill). When he was four, the family…...