Adams, John Bodkin
Adams, John Bodkin (1899–1983), doctor, was born 20 January 1899 in Randalstown, Co. Antrim, elder son of Samuel Adams, watchmaker, and Ellen Adams (née Bodkin) from Desertmartin, Co. Londonderry, and grew up in Ballinderry, Co. Antrim. His brother died in 1916. His father retired…...
Blomfield, Sara Louisa
Blomfield, Sara Louisa , Lady (1859–1939), Bahá'í pioneer and humanitarian, was born in Knockanevin, Borrisoleigh, near Thurles, Co. Tipperary, the daughter of Matthew (Matthias) John Ryan and his wife Emily (née Crowe). Religious tension between her catholic father and anglo-…...
Chevron, Philip
Chevron, Philip (1957–2013), musician, songwriter and composer, was born Philip Ryan on 17 June 1957 in the Rotunda hospital, Dublin, the elder of two children of (Philip) Brendan Ryan (1927–97) and Christine Ryan (née LaGrue), both born in inner city Dublin. He grew up in Lorcan Drive…...
Clare, Anthony Ward
Clare, Anthony Ward (1942–2007), psychiatrist and media personality, was born 24 December 1942 in Dublin, the youngest of three children (two girls and a boy) of Bernard Clare, state solicitor with the land registry, and his wife Agnes (née Dunne). Clare recalled his father as a gentle…...
Crofton, Sir John Wenman
Crofton, Sir John Wenman (1912–2009), physician, scientist and public health campaigner, was born on 27 March 1912 at the family home, 55 Merrion Square South, Dublin, the only son (between two sisters) of William Mervyn Crofton, physician and bacteriologist, and his wife Mary…...
Dunlop, Daniel Nicol
Dunlop, Daniel Nicol (1868–1935), businessman and esotericist, was born 28 December 1868 in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, only child of Alexander Dunlop, described variously as an architect or builder, and Catherine Dunlop (née Nicol) (1847–73). His father, a stern authoritarian, was…...
Fleury, Eleonora Lilian
Fleury, Eleonora Lilian (1867–1960), medical doctor, was born in Manchester, England, the eldest daughter of Charles Fleury, a Waterford surgeon of Huguenot stock. Losing her mother at an early age, she appears to have been home-educated before registering as a medical student at…...
Fox, Richard Michael ('R. M. ')
Fox, Richard Michael ('R. M. ') (1891–1969), writer and trade unionist, was born on 13 November 1891 in Leeds, Yorkshire, the second of four sons of Richard Fox and his wife Elizabeth (née Rathmell). Richard senior worked as a gymnasium instructor in Leeds, and later as a skilled…...
Grierson, Philip
Grierson, Philip (1910–2006), historian and numismatist, was born in Dublin on 15 November 1910, only son and second of three surviving children (another child had died in infancy) of Philip Henry Grierson (1859–1952) and his wife Roberta Ellen Jane (née Pope), a doctor's…...
Hyde, Harford Montgomery
Hyde, Harford Montgomery (1907–89), barrister, politician, and author, was born 14 August 1907 in Belfast, son of James Johnstone Hyde JP, linen merchant, and his wife, Isobel (née Montgomery). Hyde claimed distant kinship with Henry James. His…...
Jemison, Mary ('Deh-he-wä-mis')
Jemison, Mary ('Deh-he-wä-mis') (1743?–1833), American frontierswoman, was born aboard the ship William and Mary, when her parents, Thomas Jemison and his wife Jane (née Erwin), (both of protestant Scotch-Irish heritage) were emigrating to colonial Pennsylvania, departing from…...
Kemmy, James Joseph Oliver Mary (‘Jim’)
Kemmy, James Joseph Oliver Mary (‘Jim’) (1936–97), trade unionist, Labour politician, and local historian, was born 14 September 1936 in O'Curry St., Limerick, eldest of three sons and two daughters of Michael Kemmy and Elizabeth Kemmy (née Pilkington). His mother came from farming…...
Leahy, Patrick Joseph
Leahy, Patrick Joseph (1917–98), general practitioner and medical campaigner, was born 13 March 1917 at the Mall, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, the son of William Leahy, a self-made man and architect cum engineer, and Margaret Leahy (née Doyle). One of eight children, he was born into a…...
McCann, James (‘Jim’)
McCann, James (‘Jim’) (1944–2015), singer, was born on 26 October 1944 in Dublin, one of seven children (five sons and two daughters) of Thomas McCann, a schools inspector with the Department of Education, and his wife Winifred (née Murphy). Growing up in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar,…...
Moriarty, John Stephen
Moriarty, John Stephen (1938–2007), philosopher and shaman, was born 2 February 1938 at Moyvane, near Listowel, Co. Kerry, fourth of six children (two sons and four daughters) of James Moriarty, smallholder and native speaker of Irish (with eleven cows and 'thirty-two acres of bad,…...
Musa, Jennifer ('Mummy'; Jennifer Jehanzeba Qazi Musa)
Musa, Jennifer ('Mummy'; Jennifer Jehanzeba Qazi Musa) (1917–2008), politician, tribal elder and nurse, was born Bridget Wren on 11 November 1917 in Tarmons, Tarbert, Co. Kerry, one of five daughters and two sons of John Wren, a small-holding farmer, and his wife Johanna (née…...
Nowlan, David Shackleton
Nowlan, David Shackleton (1936–2010), journalist, critic and medical doctor, was born on 19 May 1936 at 16 Lower Hatch Street, Dublin, the eldest of four children (two boys and two girls) of Revd George Nowlan (1904–74), rector (1935–9) of St Matthias's church, Dublin, and his wife…...
Orpen, Goddard Henry
Orpen, Goddard Henry (1852–1932), lawyer and historian, was born on 8 May 1852 in Dublin, the fourth son of the five sons and three daughters of John Herbert Orpen, barrister, of Dublin, and Ellen Susan Gertrude, youngest daughter of Revd John Richards of Grange (latterly Monksgrange),…...
Robertson, Olivia Melian
Robertson, Olivia Melian (1917–2013), writer, artist and co-founder of the Fellowship of Isis, was born on 13 April 1917 at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London, to Manning Durdin Robertson (qv), urban planner and architect, and…...
Swift, (Laurence) John
Swift, (Laurence) John (1896–1990), trade unionist and labour historian, was born 26 August 1896 in Dundalk, Co. Louth, the eldest of two sons and two daughters of Patrick Swift, a master baker, and his wife Alice (née Deane), daughter of a Dundalk businessman. Known generally as…...
Táherzadeh-Málmírí, Adib
Táherzadeh-Málmírí, Adib (1921–2000), historian of the Bahá’í Faith, was born 29 April 1921 in Yazd, Iran, youngest of two surviving sons of the four sons and four daughters (three of whom had been killed during a massacre of Bahá’ís) of Hájí Muhammad-Táhir-i-Málmírí (c.…...
Toland, John
Toland, John (1670–1722), freethinker and polemical writer, was probably born in Inishowen, Co. Donegal, on 30 November 1670. Reputed to be the illegitimate son of a catholic priest, Toland may have been baptised ‘Joannes Eugenius’, which he later altered to a pen name, ‘Janus Junius’.…...
Townshend, George
Townshend, George (1876–1957), clergyman, Bahá'i convert, scholar, and writer, was born 14 June 1876 at Hatley, 10 Burlington Rd, Dublin, eldest of two sons and five daughters of Charles Uniacke Townshend (1828–1907), JP and land agent, of 15…...
Whitehead, O. Z. (Oothout Zabriskie; 'Zebby')
Whitehead, O. Z. (Oothout Zabriskie; 'Zebby') (1911–98), actor and Bahá'í pioneer, was born 18 March 1911 in New York city, USA, the son of O. Z. Whitehead, a wealthy banker living in Manhattan's Upper East Side, and his wife Maria. Enjoying a comfortable childhood, he attended the…...
Wisdom, John Oulton (J. O.)
Wisdom, John Oulton (J. O.) (1908–93), philosopher and psychoanalyst, was born in Dublin on 29 December 1908, only child of Thomas Hume Wisdom, brewery clerk, and his English-born wife Jane, daughter of Dr Henry Oulton of St Stephen's Green. The Cambridge language philosopher Arthur…...