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…...
Anderson, Sir James Caleb
Anderson, Sir James Caleb (1792–1861), baronet and steam-coach promoter, was born 21 July 1792 in Cork, eldest of two sons and one daughter of John Anderson (1747–1820), banker of Cork, and his second wife, Elizabeth (d. 1830), daughter of James Semple, merchant of Waterford.…...
Andrews, Thomas
Andrews, Thomas (1873–1912), shipbuilder, was born 7 February 1873 at Ardara, Comber, Co. Down, where his family, members of the non-subscribing presbyterian church, had been prominent in business for several generations. He was the second son of Thomas Andrews (1843–1916), for…...
Aston, Ernest Albert
Aston, Ernest Albert (1873–1949), journalist and urban planner, was born 6 October 1873 in Dublin, eldest of at least three sons and a daughter of Thomas J. Aston, book-keeper, and Jane Hawkshaw Aston (née Bennett). After education at Wesley College and training as an engineer, he…...
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…...
Cameron, Charles
Cameron, Charles (1841–1924), politician, newspaper proprietor and medical doctor, was born in Dublin on 18 December 1841, the son of John Cameron, newspaper proprietor, and his wife Ellen (née Galloway). John Cameron founded the Glasgow North British Daily Mail – subsequently…...
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…...
Carlisle, Alexander Montgomery
Carlisle, Alexander Montgomery (1854–1926), ship designer and businessman, and his two brothers John Carlisle (1856–1945), engineer and shipowner, and Henry Montgomery Carlisle (1863?–1945), shipowner, were sons of John Carlisle (d. 1884), teacher, and Catherine Carlisle (née…...
Cowan, (Robert) Barry
Cowan, (Robert) Barry (1948–2004), journalist and broadcaster, was born 1 February 1948 in Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, one of two sons of Fred Cowan, a manager in the Ulster Transport Authority, and his wife Myrtle (née Gilliland Patterson). Barry was brought up a presbyterian. The…...
Duncan, George Alexander
Duncan, George Alexander (1902–2006), economist, was born 15 May 1902 in the family home in Bridge Street, Ballymena, Co. Antrim, the second son of Alexander Duncan, a physician and surgeon, and his wife Elizabeth (née Linn). He was educated at Ballymena Academy and Campbell College…...
Evans, Emyr Estyn
Evans, Emyr Estyn (1905–89), Ireland's first professor of geography, was born 29 May 1905, youngest of four sons and one daughter of the Rev. George Owen Evans, minister of the Presbyterian Church in Wales, and Elizabeth Evans (née Jones). Born in Shrewsbury, he spent his early…...
Haddick, Victor Anderson
Haddick, Victor Anderson (1887–1950), soldier, traveller, writer, and film maker and promoter, was born 14 June 1887 at Crinkill (Crinkle), Parsonstown (Birr), King's Co. (Offaly), the eldest son of Richard J. Haddick, a soldier, and his wife Jane Anne (née Anderson). He was educated…...
Hincks, Sir Francis
Hincks, Sir Francis (c.1807–85), businessman, journalist, politician, and colonial administrator, was born 14 December 1807 in Cork, the youngest of nine children of the Reverend Thomas Dix Hincks (qv), presbyterian…...
Ireland, Denis Liddell
Ireland, Denis Liddell (1894–1974), journalist, writer, and senator, was born 29 July 1894 in Belfast, son of Adam Liddell Ireland, linen manufacturer, of Lurgan, Co. Armagh, and Isabella Ireland (née McHinch). He was educated at …...
Joy, Henry, jnr
Joy, Henry, jnr (1754–1835), newspaper proprietor and local politician, born 17 October 1754 at Belfast, was the eldest of the three sons of Robert Joy (qv), textile manufacturer and his wife, Grizell (née Rainey) of Magherafelt, Co.…...
Killen, James Bryce
Killen, James Bryce (1842–1916), barrister, journalist, and radical, was born 14 August 1842 in Kells, Co. Antrim, into a presbyterian family, the fourth son of Samuel Killen and his wife, Mary Jane (Mabel) Shaw. Educated at the RBAI…...
Lynn, Robert John
Lynn, Robert John (1873–1945), unionist politician and journalist, was born near Bushmills, Co. Antrim, the son of a small farmer. Following his education at a local national school and further private tuition, in 1893 he began his journalistic career, first working in Derry and…...
MacKnight (McKnight), James
MacKnight (McKnight), James (1801–76), journalist and agrarian reformer, was born 27 February 1801 near Grallagh House, Rathfriland, Co. Down, son of an Irish-speaking presbyterian smallholder; other details of his parents are unknown. As a youth he aspired to the presbyterian…...
Martin, John
Martin, John (1812–75), nationalist journalist and politician, was born 8 September 1812 at Loughorne, near Newry, Co. Down, second son of Samuel Martin (d. 1831), a presbyterian farmer and co-owner of a linen manufactory, and Jane Martin (née Harshaw; d. 1847) of Ringbane. His…...
McComb, William
McComb, William (1793–1873), journalist and poet, was born 17 August 1793 at Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, son of Thomas McComb, linen manufacturer and draper, and his wife (née Foster). The ‘pushing and ambitious’ Thomas soon afterwards moved his family and business to Derry city…...
McDougall, Margaret Moran
McDougall, Margaret Moran (1826–99), author and journalist, was born 25 December 1826, according to family records (though her obituary said 25 December 1828), probably in Co. Antrim. Her father, J. Moran (or William Henry) Dixon , tailor, died in Galgorm, Co. Antrim, when…...
McGregor, John James
McGregor, John James (c.1773–1834), historian and topographer, was born 24 February c.1773 in Limerick city, the seventh son and youngest of seventeen children (many of whom did not survive to adulthood) of John McGregor (d. 1796), native of Scotland, probably by…...
Norcott, William
Norcott, William (1773?–1820), barrister, satirist, and bon vivant, was eldest son of William Norcott of Charleville, Co. Cork, and Mary Norcott (née Knight). He entered TCD in July 1790, graduating BA…...
Ó Glaisne, Risteárd
Ó Glaisne, Risteárd (1927–2003), teacher, ecumenist and journalist, was born 2 September 1927 in Bandon, Co. Cork, the third of four children of George William Giles and his wife Sara Jane (née Vickery). He attended Bandon Grammar School and Trinity College Dublin (TCD), graduating…...
Ó hUid, Tarlach
Ó hUid, Tarlach (1917–90), Irish-language writer and journalist, was born Augustus Walter Hood on 13 January 1917 in south Deptford, London, one of three sons and two daughters of munitions worker and later carpenter, Augustus Walter Hood, and his wife, Ada Brockwell. He changed his…...