Cormac
Cormac (fl. 6th cent.) of the Uí Liatháin was a pilgrim monk mentioned several times by Adomnán (qv) in his ‘Vita Columbae’. He appears in the genealogies as ‘priest’, son of Dímma, grandson of Commán, and belonging to the tribe of…...
Cormac
Cormac (d. 497), bishop and first abbot of Armagh. His genealogy gives his father's name as Colmán and describes him as bishop of Áth Truim in Brega (Co. Meath). He does not figure in Patrician hagiography, but in the annals and in the Martyrology of…...
Coulter, William Alexander
Coulter, William Alexander (1849–1936), painter, was born on 7 March 1849 in Glenariff, Co. Antrim, the son of James Coulter, a coastguard, originally from Co. Down, and his wife Sarah, an Irish-speaker from the glens of Antrim. He grew up in a catholic family along the east Antrim…...
Crean, Thomas (‘Tom’)
Crean, Thomas (‘Tom’) (1877–1938), sailor and Antarctic explorer, was born either on or shortly before 16 February 1877 at Gurtuchrane, near Anascaul, Co. Kerry, one of eight sons and three daughters of Patrick Crean, farmer, and Catherine Crean (née Courtney). (His birth certificate…...
Crónán
Crónán (fl. 7th cent.) of Roscrea, saint in the Irish tradition, is frequently confused with Crónán son of Sinell (d. 665). Very little is known of this seventh-century saint, the recensions of whose Latin Life are of the eleventh or twelfth century. For what they are…...
Crozier, Francis Rawdon Moira
Crozier, Francis Rawdon Moira (1796–1848), Royal Navy captain and polar explorer, was born in September 1796 in Banbridge, Co. Down, one of thirteen children of George Crozier, attorney-at-law, and his wife Jane Elliot Crozier (née Graham). He joined the RN…...
Cú-Chuimne
Cú-Chuimne (d. 747), monk and scholar of Iona, was (according to a note in Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS lat. 12021) joint compiler with Ruben of Dairinis, a monastery on the Blackwater river, of the Irish collection of canons known as ‘Collectio canonum Hibernensis’. The genealogies…...
Cumianus
Cumianus (d. c.735×744) of Bobbio, Irish pilgrim bishop, is known from copies of an inscription on the richly carved cover-slab of a now dismembered sarcophagus, which began: ‘Hic sacra beati membra Cumiani solvuntur’ (here are laid the holy remains of blessed Cumianus). It…...
Cumméne (Cummíne, Cummian) Find
Cumméne (Cummíne, Cummian) Find (‘the white’) (d. 669), sometimes misleadingly given as Cumméne Ailbe (from Latin gen. albi), was 7th abbot of Iona (657–69) and successor to Suibne (qv) of the moccu Urthri. His genealogy places…...
Cummian (Cummíne, Cumméne) Foto
Cummian (Cummíne, Cumméne) Foto (‘the long’) (d. 661/2) of Clonfert, was designated comarba Brénaind, coarb or successor of Brendan (qv) of Clonfert (Cluain Ferta Brénainn in some sources), Co. Galway. The genealogies give his…...
Cunningham, Andrew Browne
Cunningham, Andrew Browne (1883–1963), naval commander, was born 7 January 1883 in Rathmines, Dublin, second son of Daniel John Cunningham (qv), professor of anatomy at TCD, and…...
Dagán
Dagán (d. 641), founder and first abbot of Inber Doíle (Ennereilly, Co. Wicklow) and a saint in the Irish tradition, was a member of the familia of Glendalough. According to the genealogies his father was Colmad, whose ancestry is traced to the Leinster dynasty of Dál…...
Daig
Daig (d. 587), son of Cairell, founder and first bishop of Inis Caín and a saint in the Irish tradition, is traced by the genealogists to the Uí Néill dynasty of Cenél nÉogain. His father is named as Cairell son of Laisre Lond, a descendant of …...
Dallán Forgaill
Dallán Forgaill (fl. c.600), poet, church founder, and saint in the Irish tradition, is placed by the genealogists among the Uí Macc Uais. The indications are that he belonged to a subject population – perhaps the Cathraige or Mascraige. His original name is given as…...
Declan (Déclán)
Declan (Déclán) (fl. 5th/early 6th cent.) of Ardmore, saint in the Irish tradition, bishop and patron of the Déisi of East Munster. The martyrologies and genealogies give inconsistent information about him, but according to tradition he was born in Drumroe, near Cappoquin…...
Deicolus
Deicolus (d. 625), saint in the Irish tradition, may have been a brother of St Gallus (qv), and is said to have accompanied Columbanus (qv) to Luxeuil. The main source of…...
De Robeck, Sir John Michael
De Robeck, Sir John Michael (1863–1928), admiral, was born 10 June 1863 at Gowran Grange, Naas, Co. Kildare, second son of John Henry Edward Fock, 4th Baron de Robeck, and Sophia Charlotte de Robeck (née Burton) of Burton Hall, Co. Carlow. He joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1875…...
Diarmait
Diarmait (d. 825), grandson of Áed Rón, was founder and first abbot of Dísert Diarmata, a prominent member of the Céli Dé church reform movement, and a saint in the Irish tradition. His father, Fergal, was a relatively undistinguished member of the east Ulster Dál Fiatach…...
Diarmait
Diarmait (late 6th cent.), founder and first abbot of Inis Clothrann (Inchcleraun on Lough Ree, Co. Longford), and saint in the Irish tradition, was – according to the medieval pedigree assigned to him – son of Lugna son of Lugaid, who was attached to the Connacht dynasty of Uí…...
Diuma (Dímma)
Diuma (Dímma) (d. 658), missionary-bishop called the ‘apostle of Mercia’, was sent with three others by Fínán (qv), abbot and bishop of Lindisfarne, to evangelise Mercia after the baptism of King Peada, son of Penda, c.652. His…...
Dobbs, Francis
Dobbs, Francis (1750–1811), Volunteer, author, and MP, was born 27 April 1750, second son among four sons and a daughter of the Rev. Richard Dobbs (c.1694–1775), rector (1743–75) of Lisburn cathedral, Co. Antrim, and his wife Mary (d. 1796), widow of Cornet McMannus, and…...
Dombrain, Sir James
Dombrain, Sir James (1793–1871), comptroller general of the Irish coastguard, was born in Canterbury, Kent, son of Abraham Dombrain. He was of French huguenot stock and it is believed that his family were descended from the D'Embron family of Rouen, Normandy. He joined the Royal…...
Donatus
Donatus (d. 876), Irish scholar and ecclesiastic born at the end of the eighth century, was elected bishop of Fiesole, near Florence, in 829. The tenth/ eleventh-century ‘Vita sancti Donati episcopi’ has little biographical detail, and almost nothing is known of Donatus's Irish…...
Donnán
Donnán (d. 615) of Eigg, missionary and martyr in Scotland, was born (according to tradition) in north-eastern Ireland; he trained under Finnian (qv) of Movilla, and came as a missionary to Scotland sometime before 590. He…...
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…...