Abraham, James Johnston
Abraham, James Johnston (1876–1963), surgeon and writer, was born 16 August 1876 in Kingsgate St., Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, son of William Abraham (1849–1933) of Co. Fermanagh, tea merchant, general supplier, JP, and methodist circuit…...
Allan, Frederick James (‘Fred’)
Allan, Frederick James (‘Fred’) (1861–1937), Fenian, journalist and civil servant, was born 15 June 1861 in Dublin, the third son of William Gartley Allan (d. 1881?), a clerk in the accounts department of the Board of Public Works (until 1873), and his wife Ellen Batty (née Quince…...
Asmal, (Abdul) Kader
Asmal, (Abdul) Kader (1934–2011), human rights jurist, anti-apartheid campaigner and South African government minister, was born on 8 October 1934 in Stanger (KwaDukuza), Natal, South Africa, the youngest of eight children (six sons and two daughters) of Ahmed Asmal, grocer, and his…...
Ballance, John
Ballance, John (1839–93), New Zealand politician, was born 27 March 1839, eldest among ten children surviving to adulthood of Samuel Ballance and Mary Ballance (née McNeice) of Ballypitmave near Glenavy, Co. Antrim; she was from a quaker background, while the Ballances were a…...
Barbour, William Pirrie ('Bill')
Barbour, William Pirrie ('Bill') (1920–2009), teacher, and community and political activist, was born in Newtownards, Co. Down, son of Walter Terence Barbour, a director of the Combe Barbour engineering firm, and his wife Blanche (née Redman), whose father owned wine shops in London…...
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…...
Bennis, Elizabeth (Eliza)
Bennis, Elizabeth (Eliza) (1725–1802), methodist activist and diarist, was probably born in Limerick, one of two surviving daughters of Isaac and Alice (née Mitchell) Patten . The Pattens were presbyterian, and Elizabeth had a conventionally pious upbringing and evidently received…...
Bradford, Robert John
Bradford, Robert John (1941–81), unionist politician and methodist minister, was born 8 June 1941 in Ballykelly, Limavady, Co. Londonderry, seventh child of his father, who sold his milk business while his mother was in hospital giving birth to Robert. Having moved to Grove St., Belfast…...
Buchanan, George Henry Perrott
Buchanan, George Henry Perrott (1904–89), journalist and writer, was born 9 January 1904 in Kilwaughter, Co. Antrim, second child and younger of two sons and one daughter of the Rev. Charles Henry Leslie Buchanan (1863–1939) and Florence Buchanan (née Moore). He was educated at…...
Capper, Wilfrid Meredyth
Capper, Wilfrid Meredyth (1905–89), conservationist and creator of the Ulster Way, was born in Belfast on 12 July 1905, the second son of four children (two boys and two girls) of John Malcolmson Capper, a cotton yarn merchant, and Elizabeth Jane Capper (née Stewart); the family was…...
Cochrane, Ian
Cochrane, Ian (1941–2004), writer, was born 7 November 1941 in a two‑room cottage at Moylarg, Dromona (near Cullybackey), Co. Antrim. He was the third of five children of Tom and Sadie Cochrane and had three brothers and a sister. 'We lived in a little house right out in the country,…...
Davies, Moya Llewelyn
Davies, Moya Llewelyn (1881–1943), political activist, was born Mary O'Connor in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, on 25 March 1881, third of five daughters of James O'Connor (qv) (1836–1910), journalist and nationalist MP, and his first wife, Mary.…...
Deale, Kenneth Edwin Lee
Deale, Kenneth Edwin Lee (1907–74), barrister, judge, and author, was born 17 January 1907, third son of four children of Edwin Lee Deale (d. 1948), stationer and merchant, of 11 Effra Road, Rathmines, Dublin, and Mary (‘Minnie Hill’) Deale (née Martin; d. 1939) of Co. Kerry. The…...
Driscol, Denis
Driscol, Denis (1762–1811), newspaper proprietor and radical, was born in Co. Cork. Little is known about his parentage and details of his early career are sparse, but he was born into a catholic family wealthy enough to provide him with an education on the continent. Having…...
Dwyer, Bernie
Dwyer, Bernie (1943–2013), journalist, filmmaker and political activist, was born in Dublin on 14 December 1943 to Mary (née Fagan) and Arthur Hannon , a clerk at Dublin Corporation. She spent her early childhood in Drimnagh, before the family moved to Sutton, Co. Dublin. She left…...
Elam (Dacre Fox), Norah
Elam (Dacre Fox), Norah (1878–1961), suffragist and fascist, was born Norah Doherty in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, on 5 May 1878, third of nine children (three daughters and six sons) of John Doherty, businessman, and his wife Charlotte Isabel (née Clarke). The family moved in 1888 to London…...
Ervine, David (Walter)
Ervine, David (Walter) (1954–2007), loyalist paramilitary and politician, was born in Chamberlain St., east Belfast, on 21 July 1954, youngest of five children (two girls and three boys) of Walter Ervine, iron turner and shipyard worker, and his wife Elizabeth ('Dolly'). Walter Ervine…...
Ferguson, Richard ('Dick')
Ferguson, Richard ('Dick') (1935–2009), barrister and politician, was born in Derrygonnelly, Co. Fermanagh, on 22 August 1935, only child of Wesley Ferguson, RUC sergeant, and his wife Edith. The Fergusons, who were methodists, had farmed…...
Fox, Richard Michael ('R. M. ')
Fox, Richard Michael ('R. M. ') (1891–1969), writer and trade unionist, was born on 13 November 1891 in Leeds, Yorkshire, the second of four sons of Richard Fox and his wife Elizabeth (née Rathmell). Richard senior worked as a gymnasium instructor in Leeds, and later as a skilled…...
Galvin, Patrick
Galvin, Patrick (1927–2011), writer, was born on 15 August 1927 in a tenement building at 13 Margaret Street, Cork, the second child of Patrick Galvin, a docker and boxer, and his wife Bridget (née O'Brien), a charwoman. He had three brothers and three sisters; two brothers remained…...
Glass, (John) Basil Caldwell
Glass, (John) Basil Caldwell (1926–2005), politician, lawyer, and judge, was born 21 May 1926 in Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim, eldest of two sons and one daughter of John Glass (1894–1956), methodist minister, and his wife Muriel Florence (née Caldwell), whose father was also a methodist…...
Gordon, John Fawcett
Gordon, John Fawcett (1878–1965), politician and public servant, was born in Belfast, son of working-class parents, William James Gordon and Margaret Gordon (née Fawcett). At an early age, due to the death of his father, he spent part of his childhood in the USA with relatives and…...
Harrison, Letitia Dunbar- (Crawford, Aileen)
Harrison, Letitia Dunbar- (Crawford, Aileen) (1906–94), librarian and methodist activist, was born Letitia Elizabeth Eileen Dunbar in Dundrum, Co. Dublin, on 4 February 1906, the youngest of at least four children of Arthur Dunbar, a commercial traveller, and his wife Margaret (née…...
Hewitt, John Harold
Hewitt, John Harold (1907–87), poet, was born 28 October 1907 at 96 Clifton Park Avenue, Belfast, the younger of two children (his sister, Eileen, was born 20 February 1902) of Robert Telford Hewitt, schoolmaster, and Elinor Hewitt (née Robinson). Both of his paternal grandparents had…...
Higgins, Henry Bournes
Higgins, Henry Bournes (1851–1929), politician in Australia, was born 30 June 1851 in Newtownards, Co. Down, second of six sons in a family of nine children of John Higgins, a banker who became a methodist minister, and his wife Ann, daughter of Henry Bournes, landowner, of Crossmolina…...