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…...
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…...
Boyse, Samuel
Boyse, Samuel (1708–49), poet, translator, and hack writer, was born in Dublin in 1708, son of the Rev. Joseph Boyse (qv), the English-born presbyterian theologian, pamphleteer, and minister to the Wood St. church, Dublin. Educated…...
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, John
Cameron, John (1724–99), presbyterian minister and writer, was born in Scotland; some sources say near Edinburgh, though Kinross is also mentioned. Nothing is known of his parents. He was apprenticed to an Edinburgh bookseller, and among the books picked up a love of literature…...
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…...
Donaghy, John Lyle
Donaghy, John Lyle (1902–49), poet, was born near Larne, Co. Antrim, on 28 July 1902, the eldest son of Revd John Lyle Donaghy, a minister of First Larne Presbyterian Church, and Jessie Meikle Donaghy (née Gardner-Smith). Educated at Larne grammar school and…...
Drennan, William
Drennan, William (1754–1820), physician, patriot, and minor poet, was born 23 May 1754 at his father's manse in Rosemary St., Belfast, third surviving child and only son of the Rev. Thomas Drennan and his wife Anne (née Lennox). Thomas Drennan (1696–1768) was born 25 December…...
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…...
Fraser (Frazer), John
Fraser (Frazer), John (1803/4–1852), poet and cabinet-maker, was born in Birr, King's Co. (Offaly), into a presbyterian family, originally bearing the name de Jean (possibly of huguenot extraction). There are conflicting accounts of his date of birth. It is asserted in one…...
Gamble, John
Gamble, John (1770?–1831), physician, traveller, and writer, was born at Strabane, Co. Tyrone, into a local presbyterian family and reared by an uncle (perhaps John Sproull of Strabane), an apothecary. It is likely that he came under the influence of…...
Gilbert, Stephen
Gilbert, Stephen (1912–2010), writer and businessman, was born on 22 July 1912 in Newcastle, Co. Down, eldest of five children (two sons and three daughters) of William Gilbert (1862–1935), director of Samuel McCausland and Co. tea and seed merchants (founded 1825), and his second wife…...
Greacen, Robert Henry
Greacen, Robert Henry (1920–2008), poet and critic, was born on 24 October 1920 in Bennett Street, Derry city, only child of Henry Greacen and his wife Elizabeth (née McCrea). Henry Greacen, from a presbyterian farming background in north Co. Monaghan, had at one time held a…...
Herbison, David
Herbison, David (1800–80), linen weaver and poet, was born 14 October 1800 in Mill St., Ballymena, Co. Antrim, third son of William Herbison, innkeeper, and his wife Elizabeth (née Wilson). They probably had at least one more child, a daughter. David suffered from smallpox when he…...
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…...
Huddleston, Robert
Huddleston, Robert (1814–87), poet, was born 5 April 1814 in Moneyrea, near Comber, Co. Down, son of James and Agnes Huddleston of Moneyrea, farmers. He was educated in Cowan's school, Moneyrea; when he grew up, he farmed about fifteen acres, and, like his father, repaired guns. He…...
Johnstone, Thomas McGimpsey
Johnstone, Thomas McGimpsey (1876–1961), presbyterian minister, temperance campaigner and author, was born on 11 June 1876 in Newtownards, Co. Down, son of Joseph Hamilton Johnstone, a builder, and his wife Rosena (née McGimpsey). The family was staunchly presbyterian (with covenanter…...
Johnston, (William) Denis
Johnston, (William) Denis (1901–84), playwright, was born 18 June 1901 in Ballsbridge, Dublin, the only child of William John Johnston (qv), barrister (later a supreme court judge), and his wife, Kathleen (née King), teacher and…...
Keohler (Keller), Thomas Goodwin
Keohler (Keller), Thomas Goodwin (1873–1942), writer, company secretary and long-time friend of James Joyce (qv), was born in Belfast on 19 June 1873 to Joshua William Keohler, a methodist who was in the flour business, and…...
Magee, William Kirkpatrick (‘John Eglinton’)
Magee, William Kirkpatrick (‘John Eglinton’) (1868–1961), essayist, was born 16 January 1868 in Dublin, second of three sons of Hamilton Magee, presbyterian minister and superintendent of the Dublin city mission, and Emily Clare Magee (née Kirkpatrick). He attended the High School,…...
Marshall, William Forbes
Marshall, William Forbes (1888–1959), presbyterian minister and writer, was born 8 May 1888 in Drumragh, near Omagh, Co. Tyrone, second among three sons of Charles Marshall, school principal at Sixmilecross, and Mary Marshall (née Forbes); his mother died when he was 5 years old.…...
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…...
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…...