Doran, Charles Guilfoyle
Doran, Charles Guilfoyle (1835–1909), civil engineer, Fenian, and bibliophile, was born on 1 February 1835 at Knockanna, Co. Carlow (not as previously stated at Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow), the first of seven surviving children of John Doran and his wife Mary (née Guilfoyle). He was…...
Dowling, Thady (Thaddeus)
Dowling, Thady (Thaddeus) (c.1544–1628), ecclesiastic and annalist, was a member of the Dowling family of Laois (Co. Laois). According to his own testimony, he was fostered in Leighlin, and received some basic education locally. He then went to Dublin, where he stayed for four…...
Doyle, Henry Edward
Doyle, Henry Edward (1827–92), artist and gallery director, was born in Dublin, third of seven children and third of five sons of John Doyle (qv), political cartoonist, of Dublin, and Marianna Doyle (née Conan; d. 1832). He was the only…...
Drew, Sir Thomas
Drew, Sir Thomas (1838–1910), architect and antiquary, was born 18 September 1838 at Victoria Place, Belfast, into the large family of the Rev. Dr Thomas Drew (qv), son of a Limerick grocer, and Isabella Drew (née Dalton; 1802–69), daughter…...
Dreyer, John Louis Emil
Dreyer, John Louis Emil (1852–1926), astronomer and historian, was born 13 February 1852 in Copenhagen, Denmark, into a distinguished Danish military family, third son of Lt.-gen. J. C. F. Dreyer, minister of war and the marine, and Ida Nicolene Margarethe Dreyer (née Rangrup). He…...
Dub-dá-leithe
Dub-dá-leithe (d. 1064), abbot of Armagh, belonged to the Clann Sínaig (who had controlled the abbacy for many generations), and was son of Máel-Muire (qv) (d. 1020) and a grandson of Eochaid grandson of Flann/Flannacán; he also had some…...
Dudley, Thomas (‘Bang Bang’)
Dudley, Thomas (‘Bang Bang’) (1906–81), eccentric, was born on 13 February 1906 in the Rotunda hospital, Dublin. Raised in an orphanage in Cabra, he lived for much of his adult life on Mill Lane near The Coombe in the Liberties. Although he worked briefly as a kitchen porter in Rialto…...
Duffin, Emma Sylvia
Duffin, Emma Sylvia (1883–1979), nurse, diarist and welfare worker, was born 8 November 1883 in Belfast, fourth daughter in a family of seven daughters and two sons of Adam Duffin (qv) and Maria Duffin (née Drennan). The family was well-to-do…...
Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan
Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan (1816–1903), politician and journalist, was born in Monaghan town on 12 April 1816, the sixth and youngest child of John Duffy (d. 1827), a shopkeeper and former United Irishman, and his wife, Anne (née Gavan). Formative years After the premature deaths of his…...
Duhigg, Bartholomew
Duhigg, Bartholomew (c.1751–1813), political activist, antiquarian, and barrister, was the fourth son of Bartholomew Duhigg, ‘gent.’, of Ballyhigh, Co. Limerick, who seems to have been a Roman catholic who conformed in 1725. Bartholomew the younger entered the Middle…...
Du Noyer, George Victor
Du Noyer, George Victor (1817–69), antiquarian, geologist, and artist, was probably born in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, the eldest son of Louis Victor du Noyer, a teacher of French and music, and his wife, Margaret du Bédat, who ran a school for young ladies. Both parents were of Huguenot…...
Edwards, Robert (‘Robin’) Walter Dudley
Edwards, Robert (‘Robin’) Walter Dudley (1909–88), historian, was born 4 June 1909 in Dublin, elder son of Walter Edwards (1862–1946), a minor civil servant from Worcestershire, England, and Bridget Teresa McInerney (1871–1956), a nurse from Co. Clare. When his parents, a quaker and a…...
Ellmann, Richard
Ellmann, Richard (1918–87), literary historian and critic, was born 15 March 1918 in Highland Park, Michigan, USA, son of James Isaac Ellmann and Jeanette Ellmann (née Barsook). Ellmann was educated at Highland Park school and Yale University, where he was awarded a…...
Ervine, St John Greer
Ervine, St John Greer (1883–1971), Ulster dramatist, critic, and biographer, was born John Greer Ervine on 28 December 1883 in Belfast, son of William Ervine, printer, and Sarah Jane Ervine (née Greer), who may have been a deaf-mute. Ervine's father died soon after his birth. He…...
Esposito, Mario
Esposito, Mario (1887–1975), medievalist and Hiberno-Latinist, was born 7 September 1887 in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, third child and only son of Michele Esposito (qv), professor of music in the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and Natalia…...
Falkiner, Caesar Litton
Falkiner, Caesar Litton (1863–1908), lawyer and historian, was born in Dublin on 26 September 1863, the second son in the family of three sons and four daughters of Sir Frederick Richard Falkiner (qv) and his first wife,…...
Falls, Cyril Bentham
Falls, Cyril Bentham (1888–1971), military historian and journalist, was born 2 March 1888 in Dublin, elder of two sons of Charles Fausset Falls (1860–1936) and his wife Clare (née Bentham), who also had a daughter. His father was a prominent Enniskillen solicitor and a leading…...
Farran, George Philip
Farran, George Philip (1876–1949), marine taxonomist and fisheries scientist, was born 21 November 1876 at Knocklyon House, Templeogue, Co. Dublin, eldest among two sons and two daughters of Edmond Chomley Farran, a man of private income, of Belcamp Park, Raheny, Co. Dublin, and…...
Fergus, John
Fergus, John (c.1700–1761), doctor of medicine and collector of books and manuscripts, was born in Co. Mayo, where a branch of the Ó Fearghusa family was to be found. His father's name was Mac Raith, and hence Dr Fergus was sometimes referred to in Irish as Seán mac Mac Raíth Ó…...
Ferguson, James Frederic
Ferguson, James Frederic (1807–55), record agent and antiquary, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. His father, Jacques Frédéric Jaquemain from Cambrai, had fled from France to London in 1793, assuming the name of Ferguson. In 1799 he took his wife to America, and worked as…...
Ferguson, Lady Mary Catherine
Ferguson, Lady Mary Catherine (1823–1905), antiquarian and biographer, was born 13 September 1823 in Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, eldest child and only daughter of Robert Rundell Guinness (1789–1857), founder of the banking firm of Guinness Mahon, and Mary Anne Guinness (née Seymour; d…...
Ferguson, Sir Samuel
Ferguson, Sir Samuel (1810–86), poet and archivist, was born 10 March 1810 in Belfast, youngest of six children of John Ferguson, landowner, and his wife Agnes, daughter of John Knox, clockmaker. Ferguson attended the Belfast Academical Institution, and went on to be a student at…...
Ferrar, John
Ferrar, John (1742–1804), printer and historian, was born in 1742 in Limerick city, the only son of William Ferrar (sometimes spelt Farrier), bookbinder and printer, and Rose Ferrar (née Paine or Payne). The first member of this family to settle in Limerick was William Ferrar, a cavalry…...
FitzGerald, Desmond John Villiers
FitzGerald, Desmond John Villiers (1937–2011), Knight of Glin , scholar, conservationist, and fine arts dealer and collector, was born 13 July 1937 in Cambridge Square, London, the only son and youngest of three children of Desmond Wyndham Otho FitzGerald, Knight of Glin, of Glin Castle…...
Fitzgerald, John
Fitzgerald, John (1825–1910), poet, painter, antiquary, and wood-carver, was born 18 June 1825 at Hanover Street, Cork, son of John Fitzgerald and Martha Mary Deacy. He was educated at Fr Mathew's (qv) school, Blackamoor Lane, and…...