Gonne, Iseult
Gonne, Iseult (1894–1954), writer and muse, was born 6 August 1894 in Paris, daughter of Lucien Millevoye, French politician, lawyer, and journalist, and Maud Gonne (qv), Irish revolutionary nationalist. She was their second child…...
Goulding, Valerie
Goulding, Valerie (1918–2003), philanthropist and senator, was born Valerie Hamilton Monckton on 12 September 1918 in Kent, younger of two children (she had an elder brother) of Walter Monckton, barrister (later a confidant of King Edward VIII and afterwards a conservative cabinet…...
Graves, Clotilde Inez Mary (‘Richard Dehan’)
Graves, Clotilde Inez Mary (‘Richard Dehan’) (1863–1932), novelist, dramatist, and journalist, was born 3 June 1863 at Buttevant barracks, Co. Cork, the third daughter of Major W. H. Graves and Antoinette Graves (née Deane). Her father was a cousin of the journalist and critic…...
Gregory, Tony
Gregory, Tony (1947–2009), republican socialist, community activist and TD, was born 5 December 1947 in Dublin, the second of two sons of Anthony Gregory and his wife Ellen (née Judge). A native of Dublin's North Strand, Anthony Gregory had owned a shoemaker's business in Ballybough in…...
Griffin, Gerald
Griffin, Gerald (1803–40), novelist, was born 12 December 1803 in Limerick city, ninth among about fourteen children of Patrick Griffin, brewery manager, and his wife Ellen, sister of John Geary, a leading Limerick physician. For his first seven years Gerald lived in Brunswick St…...
Grimshaw, Beatrice Ethel
Grimshaw, Beatrice Ethel (1870–1953), author and traveller, was born 3 February 1870 at Cloona House, Dunmurry, Co. Antrim, fourth child among two sons and four daughters of Nicholas William Grimshaw of Belfast, former director of the Ulster Spinning Company turned wine-and-oil merchant…...
Grogan, Vincent Benedict
Grogan, Vincent Benedict (1915–97), parliamentary draftsman and philanthropist, was born 10 April 1915 in Dublin, the only son of Capt. Vincent Grogan of Lytham-St Anne's, Lancashire, and Eleanor Grogan (née Kirwan). He began his education at the O'Connell schools in Dublin and…...
Guinan, Joseph
Guinan, Joseph (1863–1932), writer and priest, was born at Millbrook House, Cloghan, Co. Offaly; his parents were comfortable tenant farmers. Educated at St. Mel's College, Longford, he entered Maynooth in 1881. After being ordained in 1888 by Bishop…...
Hackett, Francis
Hackett, Francis (1883–1962), novelist, historian, and journalist, was born 21 January 1883 at 34 Patrick St., Kilkenny city, one of six sons and three daughters of John Byrne Hackett, a Kilkenny-born doctor, and Bridget Hackett (née Doheny), daughter of a prosperous farmer of…...
Haicéad (Hackett), Pádraigín
Haicéad (Hackett), Pádraigín (1610s?–1654), Dominican priest and Gaelic poet, was probably born in the second decade of the seventeenth century, second son of James Hackett FitzPiers and his wife Margaret Kearney, of Baltarsna in the parish of Ballysheehan, Co. Tipperary. ‘Pádraigín’…...
Hannan, Edward Joseph
Hannan, Edward Joseph (1836–1891), catholic priest, was born 21 June 1836 on the family farm in Ballygrennan, near Ballingarry, Co. Limerick, the second son of eleven children of John Hannan, tenant farmer, and his wife Johanna (née Sheehy). A dairy farmer with ninety acres, John Hannan…...
Hannelly, Dympna
Hannelly, Dympna (1922–2014), missionary nun, was born Eitne Hannelly on 4 December 1922 to Patrick Hannelly and Annie Hannelly (née Egan) of Tarmon, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon. Known as ‘Enna’ to her family, she had a twin brother Padraig, two other brothers and two sisters. Padraig…...
Hardiman, Áine
Hardiman, Áine (1926–2013) Dominican nun, community activist and anti-apartheid campaigner, was born Anne Hardiman on 23 April 1926 at 71 Connaught Street, Phibsborough, Dublin, the home of her parents Patrick Hardiman, a railway engine driver, and his wife Christina (née Monahan). The…...
Harkin, Hugh
Harkin, Hugh (1791–1854), journalist, teacher, poet, and nationalist, was born 6 July 1791 in Magilligan, Co. Derry. Little is known about his early life and education before he established a career as a teacher and journalist attached to various newspapers in both Britain and…...
Hart, Josephine
Hart, Josephine (1942–2011), writer, theatrical producer and poetry promoter, was born on 1 March 1942 in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, the eldest of five children of Dermot Hart and his wife Sheila (née Donoghue). Her father had been a commercial traveller and a lorry driver, until…...
Hartley, May Laffan
Hartley, May Laffan (1849–1916), novelist, was born 3 May 1849 at 41 Philipsburgh Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin, second child and eldest daughter of Michael Laffan and Ellen Sarah Laffan (née Fitzgibbon). The Fitzgibbons, originally catholic, converted to the Church of Ireland and,…...
Haughery, Margaret
Haughery, Margaret (1813–82), philanthropist, was born on 25 December 1813 in Carrigallen, Co. Leitrim, fifth of six children to William Gaffney, tenant farmer, and his wife Margaret (née O’Rourke). In 1818 the Gaffneys moved with their three younger children to America, leaving the…...
Haughey, Edward Enda
Haughey, Edward Enda (1944–2014), Baron Ballyedmond, businessman and politician, was born on 5 January 1944 in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co. Louth, the only son and youngest of three children of Edward Haughey, farmer and cattle dealer of Kilcurry, near Dundalk, Co. Louth…...
Healy, (William) Gerard
Healy, (William) Gerard (1918–63), actor and playwright, was born 17 August 1918 in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, son of Bartle Healy, fruit merchant, and Mary Healy (née Hayden). Educated at Synge St. CBS, he was first employed as a…...
Heeney, Cornelius
Heeney, Cornelius (1754–1848), businessman and philanthropist, was born in King's Co. (Offaly) to catholic parents. Virtually nothing is known of his early life except that a relative gave him a start in business in Dublin, so that when he followed his father to America in 1784 he…...
Hennessy, Henry
Hennessy, Henry (1826–1901), physicist and mathematician, was born 19 March 1826, probably at 4 Mount Verdon Terrace, Cork city, second son among five sons and three daughters of John Hennessy of Ballyhennessy, hide merchant on Pope's Quay, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of…...
Herlihy, Nora
Herlihy, Nora (1910–88), founder of the Irish credit union movement, was born 27 February 1910 at Ballydesmond, Co. Cork, the third of twelve children of Denis Herlihy, a teacher, and Nora Herlihy (née Mulcahy). Having taught firstly in Belmullet, Co. Mayo, Nora's father was appointed…...
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…...
Hickey, Emily Henrietta
Hickey, Emily Henrietta (1845–1924), poet, writer, and teacher, was born 12 April 1845 at Macmine Castle, near Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, second daughter of the Rev. John Steuart Hickey, rector of Gorebridge, Co. Carlow, and his wife, formerly a Miss Newton King. She was a…...
Hicks, James Joseph
Hicks, James Joseph (1837–1916), manufacturer of scientific instruments, was born 4 November 1837 at Rosscarbery, Co. Cork, the only son of George Hicks, flax worker and farmer, and Gillian Hicks (née Coakley), whose father owned the mill in which George worked. The second of…...