Flannery, Austin
Flannery, Austin (1925–2008), priest, scholar, editor, journalist and social justice campaigner, was born William ('Liam') Flannery on 10 January 1925 at Rear Cross, Co. Tipperary, the eldest of seven children of William K. Flannery and his wife Margaret Flannery (née Butler),…...
Fleming, Marie
Fleming, Marie (1953–2013), campaigner for assisted suicide, was born Eileen Mary Brolly on 26 December 1953 in Lifford, Co. Donegal, the first of five children (two girls and three boys) to Annette (née Maxwell) and Daniel Brolly, a painter and decorator. In 1969, when she was fourteen…...
Flood, Finbarr
Flood, Finbarr (1938–2016), soccer player, managing director of Guinness brewery and chairman of the Labour Court, was born on 1 December 1938 in Kilmainham, Dublin, one of three children (and only son) to Jack Flood, a worker in Guinness, and his wife Eva Flood (née…...
Fogarty, Michael
Fogarty, Michael (1859–1955), catholic bishop of Killaloe, was born 11 October 1859 in Kilcolman near Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. He had one brother, Daniel, who also became a priest. Fogarty was educated at St Flannan's College in Ennis and later Maynooth College, where he was…...
Fossett, Edward
Fossett, Edward (c.1895–1951), horseman and circus owner, was born near London, son of Sir Robert Fossett, originally of Islington, and Mary Fossett (née Francis), a bareback rider from Co. Wexford who performed as ‘Miss Mini’ in the family business, Sir Robert Fossett's…...
Foster, Vere Henry Louis
Foster, Vere Henry Louis (1819–1900), philanthropist and first president of the INTO, was born 26 April 1819 in Copenhagen, Denmark, third son of Augustus Foster (d. 1847), diplomat and non-resident Irish landowner, and…...
Franks, (Gertrude) Lucy
Franks, (Gertrude) Lucy (1878–1964), president of the Irish Countrywomen's Association, was born 27 February 1878 in Westfield, Queen's Co. (Laois), daughter of Matthew Henry Franks, landowner, JP and DL…...
French, (William) Percy
French, (William) Percy (1854–1920), songwriter, humourist, entertainer, and painter, was born 1 May 1854 in Cloonyquin House, parish of Tulsk, Co. Roscommon, second son and third child among four sons and five daughters of Christopher French (1821–97), landowner, and Susan Emma French…...
Gahan, (Winifred) Muriel Françoise
Gahan, (Winifred) Muriel Françoise (1897–1995), promoter of cooperation and traditional crafts, was born 27 October 1897 at Magherabeg House, near Donegal town, the second daughter of (Fredrick George) Townsend Gahan, a civil engineer with the Congested Districts Board, and…...
Gaj, Margaret (née Dunlop)
Gaj, Margaret (née Dunlop) (1919–2011), restaurateur, radical, and political activist, was born on 28 January 1919 in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of four children (two girls and two boys) of James Aloysius Dunlop and his wife Ellen (née O'Malley). Both parents were catholics of Irish…...
Gallagher, Denis (Ó Gallchóir, Donncha)
Gallagher, Denis (Ó Gallchóir, Donncha) (1922–2001), government minister and community activist, was born 29 December 1922 in Currane, within the parish, though not the island, of Achill, Co. Mayo, the son of John Gallagher, merchant, of Currane, and his wife Catherine (née Gallagher).…...
Gallagher, Patrick
Gallagher, Patrick (1870–1966), cooperative organiser, was born 25 December 1870 at Cleendra, in the Rosses district of Co. Donegal, one of two sons and seven daughters of Pat Gallagher, small farmer and migrant labourer, and his wife, a Boyle from Falmore, Co. Donegal. The family lived…...
Gardiner, Marguerite (Margaret)
Gardiner, Marguerite (Margaret) (1789–1849), countess of Blessington , writer, journalist, and society hostess, was born 1 September 1789 at Knockbrit, Co. Tipperary, the second daughter and fourth child of Edmund Power and his wife Ellen (née Sheehy), both from well-established…...
Garzia (Garcia), John
Garzia (Garcia), John (d. p.1723), priest-catcher, was almost certainly born in Spain. He was the most notorious of a profession – which included Edward Tyrell (qv) – active in the early eighteenth century, who, in return…...
Gatty (Gillett-Gatty), Katherine
Gatty (Gillett-Gatty), Katherine (1870–1952), suffragette and socialist, was born on 11 June 1870 in Firozpur, India, to Edward Gatty, a British army captain and Emma Rebecca Gatty (née Collum ), a member of a prominent Fermanagh family. Gatty, an only child, was raised on the…...
Geldof, Zenon
Geldof, Zenon (1882–1939), chef, restaurateur, and entrepreneur, was born 28 February 1882 at Boesinghe (Boesinge), near Ypres, Belgium, son of Zenon Geldof, schoolteacher, and his wife Mini. He served his apprenticeship in confectionery in Bruges. His experience working in London's…...
Gibb (Gibson), Rosemary Elizabeth Jane (‘Rosy’)
Gibb (Gibson), Rosemary Elizabeth Jane (‘Rosy’) (1942–97), social worker, clown, and magician, was born 8 November 1942 in Dublin, the only child of Jack Gibson, a well-known surgeon and hypnotist, and Elizabeth Maude Gibson (née James). She passed her early childhood in Guernsey, where…...
Gibney, Frank
Gibney, Frank (1905–78), architect and town planner, was born 20 April 1905, son of Joseph Francis Gibney, architect, and his wife Eleanor (née Bassett). Aged 18 he went to work for his father (who had been apprenticed to the office of William Kaye Parry), and five years later moved…...
Gilbert, Claudius
Gilbert, Claudius (1669/70–1743), clergyman and university benefactor, was born in Belfast, the only son and heir of Claudius Gilbert (qv), a nonconformist clergyman and prolific pamphleteer who appears to have conformed to the…...
Gilbert, Eliza Rosana (‘Lola Montez’)
Gilbert, Eliza Rosana (‘Lola Montez’) (1820–61), dancer and adventuress, was born in spring 1820 in Co. Limerick, daughter of Edward Gilbert, a British soldier serving in Co. Cork, and Eliza Oliver, illegitimate daughter of Charles Silver Oliver, MP; her parents married around the…...
Gildea, Sir James
Gildea, Sir James (1838–1920), philanthropist, was born 23 June 1838 in Kilmane, Hollymount, Co. Mayo, third son of the Rev. George Robert Gildea (1803–87), provost of Tuam, and Esther Gildea (née Greene) of Greenmount, Co. Wexford. The Gildeas had settled in Mayo in the early…...
Glenn, Alice
Glenn, Alice (1921–2011), politician and moral crusader, was born Alicia Duffy on 17 December 1921 in Usher's Quay, Dublin, the eldest of ten children of (Arthur) Leo Duffy, a car mechanic, and his wife Mary (née Joyce), a dressmaker. Descended from generations of Dublin artisans on…...
Glucksman, Lewis
Glucksman, Lewis (1925–2006), philanthropist and businessman, was born 22 December 1925 in New York, the second of three children of Jack Glucksman, owner of a factory that manufactured table lamps, and his wife Zipporah. His parents were second-generation Hungarian Jews. Raised in…...
Glynn, Sir Joseph
Glynn, Sir Joseph (1869–1951), catholic social activist and writer, was born 25 April 1869, at The Square, Gort, Co. Galway, the second son of John McMahon Glynn, merchant, and Ellen Glynn (née Walsh). He was educated at Blackrock College, Dublin, graduating…...
Goldin, Paul
Goldin, Paul (1927–2008), entertainer and clinical psychologist, was born Ronald Paul Gold in London on 15 April 1927, the son of Charles Gold and his wife Minnie (née Elbury). The Golds were a Jewish family living in London's East End, and Paul's father may have been a psychiatrist…...