O'Halloran, Michael Joseph
O'Halloran, Michael Joseph (1933–99), railwayman and politician, was born 20 August 1933 in Doonbeg, Co. Clare, son of Martin O'Halloran, railwayman. He was educated at Clohanes national school up to the age of 14, when he left to work on the railways in London. He became an active…...
Ó hUadhaigh, Seán
Ó hUadhaigh, Seán (1886–1959), solicitor, republican, Irish-language enthusiast and aviation pioneer, was born John Kirwan Woods 20 May 1886 in 2 Brookline, Terenure Road, Dublin, son of Robert Hewitt Woods (d. 1891), barrister, originally from Co. Down, and Mary Katherine Woods (née…...
O'Kelly, Matthias Joseph
O'Kelly, Matthias Joseph (1786–1868), naturalist and catholic activist, was the son of Joseph O’Kelly of Co. Kildare, and lived at 147 James St., Dublin, before moving to Rochestown House, Rochestown Avenue, Killiney, Co. Dublin, with his wife, children, and two sisters. He had a…...
O'Leary, William J.
O'Leary, William J. (1869–1939), Jesuit priest and scientist, was born 19 March 1869 in Dublin, son of Dr William H. O'Leary (qv), MP for Drogheda 1874–80, surgeon, and professor of anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons in…...
O'Meara, Robert Allen Quain
O'Meara, Robert Allen Quain (1903–74), professor of medicine and medical scientist, was born 1 December 1903 in Skibbereen, Co. Cork, younger son of Timothy Joseph O'Meara (fl. 1895–c.1938), doctor, and his wife (née Allen). He was educated at Clongowes Wood…...
Ó Raifeartaigh, Lochlainn Séamus
Ó Raifeartaigh, Lochlainn Séamus (1933–2000), theoretical physicist, scholar, and senior professor at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, was born 11 March 1933 in Clontarf, Dublin, second eldest among three sons and three daughters of…...
O'Reilly, Joseph Patrick
O'Reilly, Joseph Patrick (1829–1905), chemist, engineer, and mineralogist, was born 11 July 1829 in Monaghan, fifth son among thirteen children of Thomas O'Reilly, solicitor, and Cecilia O'Reilly (née Devin). The family moved to Dublin on his father's appointment as master of the…...
O'Rourke, Madeleine C.
O'Rourke, Madeleine C. (1951–2006), aviator and organiser of aviation events, was born in south Dublin in the spring of 1951, the daughter of Peter J. Byrne and his wife Olive (née Poole); there was an older brother. Her father was an electrical engineer with the…...
O'Sullivan, Cornelius
O'Sullivan, Cornelius (1841–1907), brewer's chemist, was born 20 December 1841 at Bandon, Co. Cork, one of seven children (three boys and four girls) of James O'Sullivan, merchant, and his wife Elizabeth (née Morgan). He attended Denny Holland's private primary school in Bandon,…...
Philbin, Eva Maria
Philbin, Eva Maria (1914–2005), chemist and university professor, was born 3 January 1914 in Ballina, Co. Mayo, the elder of two daughters of George Ryder , a postman and later a publican, and his wife Kate (née Donegan). Eva attended the Convent of Mercy in Ballina, and then went…...
Quinlan, Patrick Michael
Quinlan, Patrick Michael (1919–2001), mathematical physicist and senator, was born 7 December 1919 at Ballinacrana, Kilfinane, Co. Limerick, one of the two sons and a daughter of Jeremiah Quinlan and his wife, Josephine (née Casey), who lived comfortably on a modest farm in the…...
Reilly, Joseph
Reilly, Joseph (1889–1965), chemist, was born 3 September 1889 at 11 Creighton Street, Dublin, the son of Joseph Reilly, a policeman, from Longford, and Margaret Reilly (née Fulham), from Galway. His father died before Joseph's birth. Educated at the Christian Brothers’ School,…...
Renouf, Louis Percy Watt
Renouf, Louis Percy Watt (1887–1968), zoologist, was born 11 December 1887 in Lewisham, London, son of Philip Renouf and Jane Renouf (née Tomlin) of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. His father, a mechanical engineer, worked on the design and manufacturing of bicycles and…...
Rocque, John (Jean)
Rocque, John (Jean) (c.1704–1762), cartographer, surveyor, and landscape designer, was born in France into a huguenot family of four children. After spending some time in Geneva, Rocque arrived in England (c.1709). His earliest published works, consisting mainly…...
Roddie, Ian Campbell
Roddie, Ian Campbell (1928–2011), physiologist and academic, was born on 1 December 1928 in Belfast, third of four sons of J. R. Wesley Roddie (d. 1953), a methodist minister, and his wife Mary Hill (née Wilson; d. 1973); the four brothers all entered the medical profession. Rev.…...
Rogers, John Cecil Kelly-
Rogers, John Cecil Kelly- (1905–81), aviation pioneer, was born 8 February 1905 at Raven Lodge, Sandycove, Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), Co. Dublin, second child of Capt. Theodore Rogers, RN (later of the Dublin–Liverpool passenger service), and Violet…...
Ryan, Hugh
Ryan, Hugh (1873–1931), chemist, was born 15 September 1873 in Dolla near Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, second son of John Ryan, small farmer and shopowner at Dolla, and Sarah Ryan (née Quinn) of Ballymackey. His scientific interest may have been influenced by previous members of his…...
Scannell, Mary J. P. ('Maura')
Scannell, Mary J. P. ('Maura') (1924–2011), botanist, was born on 18 March 1924 in Cork city, one of seven children (five daughters and two sons) of Patrick Scannell, a carrier and contractor, and his wife Margaret (née Murnane). The family was well off, living in a villa on the South…...
Sigerson, George
Sigerson, George (1836–1925), physician, biologist, poet and author, was born 11 January 1836 at Holyhill, Strabane, Co. Tyrone, youngest of William and Nancy Sigerson's eleven children. His parents’ marriage had a romantic background: in the 1820s William Sigerson, a catholic from…...
Sullivan, William Kirby
Sullivan, William Kirby (1820/21/2–1890), chemist, Young Irelander, and president of QCC, was born in Cork, the son of James Bartholomew Sullivan (O'Sullivan) (d. 1829), an industrialist in Cork. James Bartholomew, known locally as ‘Jimmy Batt…...
Swan, Jeremy (Harold James Charles)
Swan, Jeremy (Harold James Charles) (1922–2005), cardiologist, inventor of the Swan–Ganz catheter, was born 1 June 1922 in Sligo town, one of four sons of Harold Swan and his wife Marcelle (née Kelly); both his parents were physicians who had met while studying medicine at…...
Threlkeld, Caleb
Threlkeld, Caleb (1676–1728), doctor, minister of religion, and botanist, was born 31 May 1676 in Keybergh or Keibergh in the parish of Kirkoswald, Cumberland, England, third among three sons of Thomas Threlkeld and Bridget Threlkeld (née Brown), who both died in 1712. He also had three…...
Tinney, Sheila Christina (née Power)
Tinney, Sheila Christina (née Power) (1918–2010), mathematical physicist, was born on 15 January 1918 in Galway city, fourth daughter of Michael Power (1885–1974), professor of mathematics in UCG (1912–55), and Christina Power (née…...
Wade, Walter
Wade, Walter (c.1740–1825), botanist, was born in Dublin, son of John Wade (d. 1799), chemist and apothecary, and Katherine Wade. In 1767 John Wade's proposal, sanctioned by (Royal) King and Queen's College of Physicians Ireland ((R)K&QCPI; forerunner of RCPI), to establish…...
Walsh, Thomas
Walsh, Thomas (1914–88), scientist and agricultural administrator, was born in Piercestown, Co. Wexford, fourth son of modest farmers. Walsh was educated at Piercestown national school and Wexford CBS before attending…...