Borthwick, Mariella Norma
Borthwick, Mariella Norma (1862–1934), artist, writer and Irish-language activist, was born 25 July 1862 in Highfield, Higher Bebington, Chester, one of five daughters and three sons of George Borthwick, merchant, and Mary Elizabeth Borthwick (née MacDonald), of Edinburgh. Despite her…...
Bowen, Elizabeth Dorothea Cole
Bowen, Elizabeth Dorothea Cole (1899–1973), writer, was born 7 June 1899 at 15 Herbert Place, Dublin, only child of Henry Charles Cole Bowen (1862–1930) of Bowen's Court, Co. Cork, and his first wife Florence (née Colley) (1866–1912), of Dublin. They married in 1890; his second…...
Boylan, Clare Catherine
Boylan, Clare Catherine (1948–2006), journalist and writer, was born 21 April 1948 in Dublin, the youngest of three daughters of Patrick Boylan, a clerk, and his wife Evelyn (née Selby). Clare's mother felt trapped by the limitations that domesticity imposed on women in 1950s Ireland…...
Brayton, Teresa C.
Brayton, Teresa C. (1868–1943), poet and nationalist, was born 29 June 1868 in the townland of Kilbrook, near Enfield, Co. Kildare, fifth child of Hugh Boylan and Elizabeth Boylan (née Downes), tenant farmers. She was educated locally; having trained as a teacher, she worked for a…...
Brennan, Maeve
Brennan, Maeve (1917–93), fiction writer and New Yorker columnist, called the ‘Long-Winded Lady’, was born in Dublin on 6 January 1917, second of four children of the nationalist journalist…...
Breslin, Mary (‘Maura’)
Breslin, Mary (‘Maura’) (1914–84), trade unionist and feminist, was born 29 December 1914 in Dublin. She began working life as a staff nurse in Grangegorman mental hospital, and began her lifelong activism in trade unionism by joining the Irish Women Workers Union (IWWU), founded (…...
Brooke, Charlotte
Brooke, Charlotte (1750☓1760–1793), poet, dramatist, and pioneer in the introduction of Irish culture to the English reader, was born at Rantavan House, Mullagh, Co. Cavan, daughter of Henry Brooke (qv) and Catherine Brooke (née Meares; 1718?–…...
Browne, Frances
Browne, Frances (1816–79), writer, was born 16 January 1816 in Stranorlar, Co. Donegal, seventh among twelve children of Samuel Browne, postmaster of Stranorlar, and his wife Frances (née Luke). Though blinded by smallpox at the age of 18 months, she picked up an education from her…...
Browne, Kathleen Anne
Browne, Kathleen Anne (1878–1943), agriculturist, writer, and politician, was born 1 October 1878 in Wexford, eldest among five children of Michael Browne, farmer, shopkeeper, and local politician, of Rathronan Castle, Bridgetown, Co. Wexford, and his wife (and cousin) Mary…...
Browne, Mary Bonaventura
Browne, Mary Bonaventura (d. ante 1694), abbess and chronicler, was one of at least four children (two daughters and two sons) of Andrew Browne, a merchant of Galway city with substantial landholdings across Co. Galway. Her mother was probably Helen Lynch, the earlier of her…...
Brugha, Máire MacSwiney
Brugha, Máire MacSwiney (1918–2012), teacher, author and charity worker, was born on 23 June 1918 in Cork to Terence MacSwiney (qv) and Muriel MacSwiney (qv) (née Murphy). From…...
Buckley (Goulding), Margaret (‘Maggie’; ‘Margaret Lee’)
Buckley (Goulding), Margaret (‘Maggie’; ‘Margaret Lee’) (1879–1962), republican, trade unionist, and writer, was born in July 1879, at Winter's Hill, Cork, the eldest daughter of James Goulding and his wife Ellen (née Joyce), both of Cork. Her father, who was employed as a labourer…...
Bunbury, Selina
Bunbury, Selina (1802–82), novelist and short-story and travel writer, was born in 1802 at Kilsaran House, Co. Louth, one of the fifteen children of the Rev. Henry Bunbury, a Church of Ireland clergyman and rector of Mansfieldstown, and Henrietta Shirley, of Loughrea, Co. Galway.…...
Butler, Mary Ellen Lambert
Butler, Mary Ellen Lambert (1873–1920), novelist, was born 28 June 1873 in England, the youngest of the two daughters and a son of Peter Butler (1840–80) of Bunnahow House, Co. Clare, and Mary Ryan of Tipperary. The Butlers were landowners who remained catholic. Through intermarriage,…...
Caddell, Cecilia Mary (Maria)
Caddell, Cecilia Mary (Maria) (1814–1877), novelist, was born at Harbourstown, Co. Meath, the second daughter of Richard O'Ferral Caddell (1780–1856) and Paulina (d. 1856), daughter of Thomas Arthur, second Viscount Southwell. Despite being a lifelong invalid, Caddell managed to…...
Caffyn, Kathleen Mannington
Caffyn, Kathleen Mannington (née Hunt ) (c.1853–1926), novelist, also known by her pseudonym Iota , was born in Waterloo House, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, the daughter of William de Vere Hunt and his wife Louisa (née Going). Educated at home by English and German governesses,…...
Cahalan, Cissie
Cahalan, Cissie (1876–1948), trade unionist and suffragist, was born in Cork in 1876. Little is known of her early life, other than that she was apprenticed to the drapery trade, and by 1906 was based in Dublin where she worked as a draper's assistant in Arnott's of Henry St. Her…...
Caitilín Dubh
Caitilín Dubh (fl. 1624–9), poet, lived in Thomond (present-day Co. Clare). She is the earliest woman poet for whom texts in the Irish language survive in quantity. Five of her elegies, in accentual (or stressed) caoineadh metre, are copied into Duanaire Uí Bhriain…...
Callan, Margaret (née Hughes) (Thornton MacMahon)
Callan, Margaret (née Hughes) (Thornton MacMahon) (c.1817–c.1883), writer, teacher, and nationalist, was born in Newry, Co. Down, the daughter of Phillip Hughes, a local flax buyer, and his wife, Susan Gavan, of Latnamard, Co. Monaghan, the aunt of…...
Campbell, Gertrude Elizabeth
Campbell, Gertrude Elizabeth (née Blood ) (1857–1911), writer, journalist, and critic, was the second daughter of Edmond Maghlin Blood (d. 1891), of Thurloe Square, London, and Brickhill, Co. Clare, and Mary Amy Fergusson (d. 1899), of Leixlip, Co. Kildare. Owing to her father's…...
Carbery, Ethna
Carbery, Ethna (1866–1902), poet, writer, and journalist, was born Anna Johnston 3 December 1866 into a catholic family in Ballymena, Co. Antrim, the second of three children. She lived nearly all her life in Belfast, where her father, …...
Carney, Winifred (‘Winnie’)
Carney, Winifred (‘Winnie’) (1887–1943), trade unionist, feminist, and republican, was born Maria Winifred Carney 4 December 1887 at Fisher's Hill, Bangor, Co. Down, youngest child among three sons and three daughters of Alfred Carney, commercial traveller, and Sarah Carney (née Cassidy…...
Carroll, Margaret Anna (Sister Mary Teresa Austin)
Carroll, Margaret Anna (Sister Mary Teresa Austin) (1835–1909), Sister of Mercy, educator, historian, and writer, was born 23 February 1835 in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, second eldest daughter and fourth eldest among nine children (four sons and five daughters) of William Carroll,…...
Cary (Tanfield), Elizabeth
Cary (Tanfield), Elizabeth (1585–1639), Viscountess Falkland , writer and translator, was born at Burford Priory, Oxfordshire, the only child and heir of Lawrence Tanfield (c.1551–1625), a wealthy lawyer, later appointed chief baron of the exchequer, and his wife,…...
Casey, Elizabeth Owens Blackburne
Casey, Elizabeth Owens Blackburne (1845?–94), author (as ‘E. Owens Blackburne ’), was born 10 May 1845/8 in Slane, Co. Meath, daughter of Andrew Casey and his wife (née Mills), and great‑granddaughter of Richard Blackburne of Mulladillon House, Co. Meath. She lost her sight as a…...