Buite
Buite (d. 521) was the founder of the monastery of Mainistir Buite (Monasterboice, Co. Louth), and is a saint in the Irish tradition. The only biographical source is a late and imperfect Latin Life, according to which he was a a son of Brónach, a member of the Cianachta Breg of…...
Bulkeley, Sir Richard
Bulkeley, Sir Richard (1660–1710), politician and eccentric philanthropist, was born 17 August 1660 in Dublin. His great-grandfather was Archbishop Lancelot Bulkeley (qv), while his father, Richard Bulkeley (1634–85), MP for…...
Butler, Isaac
Butler, Isaac (1689/90?–1755), almanac maker, botanist, and antiquary, was by 1725 in business as a bookseller and publisher in Patrick Street, Dublin; he was a quarter-brother of the printers’ guild (1728–31). His first almanac was Advice from the stars (1725), which he…...
Byrne, Patrick
Byrne, Patrick (1740/41–1814), printer, bookseller, and United Irishman, had a flourishing business in Dublin, at 35 College Green (1779–85) and 108 Grafton Street (1785–99). Byrne's business was probably the largest of its kind in Ireland in the eighteenth century. One indication…...
Cadoc
Cadoc (fl. c.497–570) of Llancarfan, one of the best known of the early Welsh saints and monastic founders, had many close links with Ireland. The sources for his life are late but contain some material of historical value. The earliest Lives are by Lifris, abbot of…...
Cadróe
Cadróe (d. 974 × 978), abbot, was born of noble family into an Irish community in Scotland, probably in the west or north-west. He received his first education from a teacher named Beanus or Béoán, and was subsequently educated at Armagh. He set out from Scotland on a pilgrimage…...
Caillín
Caillín (fl. late 6th/early 7th cent.), patron saint of Fenagh (Fidnacha Maige Réin), Co. Leitrim, has no published Life and the extant accounts of him, all late, are almost entirely imaginary. Yet the archaeological evidence for his foundation at Fenagh and his…...
Caimín
Caimín (d. 654), founder of the monastery of Inis Celtra on the island of Lough Derg, near Scariff, Co. Clare, is said to have been a half-brother to Guaire Aidni (qv) (d. 663), king of Connacht. Although his pedigree, which makes him…...
Caínchomrac
Cainnech
Cainnech (d. 600/03), son of Luigthech, founder and first abbot of Achad Bó in Osraige (Aghaboe, Co. Laois) and saint in the Irish tradition, probably belonged to the lineage of Corco Dalláin. There are marked difficulties, however, in relation to his ancestry, his early…...
Cainner (Cannera)
Cainner (Cannera) (6th cent.?), foundress of Cluain Cláraid and saint in the Irish tradition, belonged to the old north Munster population group of Corcu Óchae. Despite a degree of genealogical confusion, it seems reasonable to identify her with Cainner daughter of Fintan. According…...
Caintigern (Kentigerna)
Caintigern (Kentigerna) (d. 734), anchoress of Loch Lomond and saint in the Irish tradition, was daughter of Cellach Cualann (qv), Uí Máil overking of Leinster, but it is not clear which of his successive wives was her mother. She…...
Cairnech
Cairnech (fl. 5th/6th cent.), a saint reputedly of Welsh or Cornish origin and known outside Ireland as Carannog, was probably born in the region of Cardigan (Dyfed) in south-west Wales, but his travels brought him into contact with places in Ireland, Cornwall, and…...
Camelacus (Cáemlach?, Camulacus)
Camelacus (Cáemlach?, Camulacus) ( fl. 5th cent.), an almost unknown saint in the Irish tradition, is mentioned in the late seventh-century ‘Collectanea’ of Tírechán (qv) in the Book of Armagh (f. 11r a): ‘And crossing the River…...
Carden, John Rutter
Carden, John Rutter (1811–66), landlord, was born 5 February 1811, eldest among six sons and a daughter of John Carden (1772–1822) of Barnane, near Templemore, Co. Tipperary, landowner, DL, and high sheriff (1796) of the county, and Ann Carden…...
Carey, Mathew
Carey, Mathew (1760–1839), author, bookseller and publisher, was born 28 January 1760 in Dublin, one of five sons to Christopher Carey, a baker who prospered provisioning the British navy, and Mary Carey (née Sheridan). Small and lame from infancy (having been dropped by his nurse),…...
Carroll, Patrick Joseph
Carroll, Patrick Joseph (1903–75), Garda commissioner, was born 15 September 1903 in Ballyrider, Stradbally, Co. Laois, third among six children of Michael Carroll (d. c.1920) and Julia Carroll (née Buggy) (d. c.1939), farmers. Educated at the…...
Carter, Cornelius
Carter, Cornelius (d. 1734), printer, was admitted to the Dublin printers’ guild in 1696 but was never sworn and, though listed until 1716, paid no quarterage. His press was housed at different addresses in Fishamble Street (1696–1727). He began his career as a pamphleteer and…...
Carthach (Mochuta)
Carthach (Mochuta) (d. 637), monastic founder, was a son of Fínall and member of the Ciarraige Luachra group (Co. Kerry). He became abbot of the monastery of Rahan in Uí Néill territory (Co. Offaly), whence he was expelled in 636 (AU; Ann. Inisf. 638) and went south to Déisi…...
Cathaldus
Cathaldus (7th cent.), bishop of Taranto, was originally perhaps from Lismore (Co. Waterford). According to one late tradition, he was born in Ireland in the seventh century and educated in the monastery of Lismore. Later he became a bishop and ministered in Munster for some years…...
Cellach
Cellach (d. mid 6th cent.), monastic founder and supposed bishop of Killala (Cell Alaid), appears among the saints of the Uí Fhiachrach of Connacht in ‘Genealogiae Regum et Sanctorum Hiberniae’, where Walsh suggests that this may be ‘Cellán Ua Fiachrach’, who appears in…...
Chadwick, John Cooper-
Chadwick, John Cooper- (1864–1948), colonial policeman and Rhodesian pioneer, was born 13 May 1864 in Baggotstown, Bruff, Co. Limerick, second son of Richard Austin Cooper-Chadwick (1831–92) of Ballinard House, Emly, Co. Tipperary, and his second wife, Charlotte Sophia (d. 1912),…...
Chamberlain, Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald
Chamberlain, Sir Neville Francis Fitzgerald (1856–1944), soldier, inspector general of the RIC, and originator of snooker, was born 13 January 1856 at Upton Park, Upton, Buckinghamshire, England, only son of Lt-col. Charles Francis Falcon Chamberlain of the Indian army and Marion Ormsby…...
Chambers, John
Chambers, John (1754–1837), printer and United Irishman, was born in Dublin in January 1754, the son of a wine merchant and his wife, Elinor, daughter of Charles Carter of Chapelizod, Co. Dublin. Apprenticed to a printer by his widowed mother (1 July 1767), he was printing on his…...
Chetwood, William Rufus
Chetwood, William Rufus (d. 1766), prompter, publisher, and author, was most probably born in England. Little is known of his early life, but his own accounts, and the fact that he wrote several seafaring adventures, indicate that he had travelled around the world as a young man,…...