O'Gorman, Thomas (‘The Chevalier’)
O'Gorman, Thomas (‘The Chevalier’) (1732–1809), officer in French service, scholar, and entrepreneur, was by his own account born 16 September 1732 at Castletown, Co. Clare, son of Matthew O'Gorman (or MacGorman) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Donough O'Loughlin of Castletown…...
O'Halloran, Sylvester
O'Halloran, Sylvester (1728–1807), surgeon and historian, was born 31 December 1728 at Caherdavin, Co. Clare, third son of Michael O'Halloran, a prosperous catholic farmer, and Mary O'Halloran (née McDonnell). His brothers were Joseph Ignatius, later a member of the Society of Jesus,…...
O'Hanlon, John (‘Lageniensis’)
O'Hanlon, John (‘Lageniensis’) (1821–1905), priest, hagiologist, historian, folklorist, and poet, was born 30 April 1821 in Stradbally, Queen's County (Laois), son of Edward Hanlon (d. early 1840s), who probably owned a tanyard in the town, and Honora Hanlon (1793/4–1887). He was…...
O'Hart, John
O'Hart, John (1824–1902), teacher and genealogist, was born in December 1824 into an Irish-speaking family in Crossmolina, Co. Mayo, fifth and longest surviving among six sons of Shane (John) O'Hart and Nora O'Hart (née Geraghty) from the nearby parish of Glenhest. Of his four sisters,…...
O'Hegarty, Patrick Sarsfield (‘P. S.’)
O'Hegarty, Patrick Sarsfield (‘P. S.’) (1879–1955), revolutionary, writer, and civil servant, was born 29 December 1879 at Carrignavar, Co. Cork, son of John Hegarty, plaster and stucco worker, and Katherine Hegarty (née Hallanan), who came of west Cork farming stock, as did…...
O'Heyne, John
O'Heyne, John (c.1648–1713), Dominican priest and historian, was born near Athenry; his writings, curiously, do not mention his own parentage. He was the great-nephew on his father's side of Dominic Burke (qv)…...
O'Kelly, Michael Joseph (‘Brian’)
O'Kelly, Michael Joseph (‘Brian’) (1915–82), archaeologist, was born 5 November 1915 in Springmount, Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick, son of Joseph O'Kelly, a national school teacher, and Elizabeth O'Kelly (née McAuliffe). After receiving secondary education at Rockwell college, Co.…...
O'Leary, Daniel Florence
O'Leary, Daniel Florence (1801–54), soldier, historian, and diplomat, was born in February 1801 in 89/90 Barrack St., Cork, eighth of ten children of Jeremiah O'Leary, butter merchant, and his wife, Catherine O'Leary (not related), both natives of Cork. In Europe in 1816…...
Ó Lúing, Seán
Ó Lúing, Seán (1917–2000), translator and author, was born 16 May 1917 in Ballyferriter, Co. Kerry, youngest among three sons of Séamas Ó Lúing, farmer, and his wife, whose maiden name was Ní Mhainnín. Seán was brought up bilingually and received his earliest education in the local…...
O'Mahony, Conor
O'Mahony, Conor (1594–1656), Jesuit academic and author, was a native of Muskerry, west Co. Cork. Little of his early life is known until his entrance into the Irish College at Seville, probably in 1614, where he studied philosophy and theology for three and four years…...
O'Mahony, Eoin Seosamh
O'Mahony, Eoin Seosamh (‘Pope ’) (1904–70), barrister, genealogist, journalist, and broadcaster, was born in Monkstown in Cork on 22 March 1904, the only surviving son of Daniel O'Mahony, city analyst for Cork, and his wife (and cousin), Julia O'Keeffe. He was at school in Cork at…...
Ó Maolchonaire, Fearfeasa
Ó Maolchonaire, Fearfeasa (fl. 1630–46), one of the Four Masters, son of Lochlainn, was from the group of townlands in Co. Roscommon called Baile Uí Mhaolchonaire (see the writers' prefaces to the works of the ‘four masters’). His father may be the ‘Loughlin O'…...
Ó Meallàin, Toirdhealbhach (alias Feardorcha?)
Ó Meallàin, Toirdhealbhach (alias Feardorcha?) (Turlough O'Mallon) (fl. 1640s–1650s), Gaelic annalist and poet, was a Franciscan priest in the small friary at Gort Tamlacht na Muc in the Brantry district of Co. Tyrone during the early 1640s. The Ó Mealláins had been a prominent…...
O'Neill, Thomas Patrick
O'Neill, Thomas Patrick (1921–96), historian, was born 1 November 1921 in Ballon, Co. Carlow, the son of Thomas O'Neill, a farmer, and his wife, Anna Maria (née Murphy); he had two brothers, John and Maurice. He was educated in the local national school, at Knockbeg College, and at…...
O'Rourke, John
O'Rourke, John (1809–87), priest and historian, may have come from a farming background and appears to have had some knowledge of Irish; some of his passing remarks refer to personal memories of the bitter hostility felt towards agents and bailiffs and a sense, instilled in the…...
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),…...
O'Sullivan Beare, Philip
O'Sullivan Beare, Philip (1590–1636), writer, soldier, and exile, was born on Dursey Island, Co. Cork, one of seventeen children of Johanna McSweeny and Dermot O'Sullivan, a member of the local ruling family. After the Irish defeat at Kinsale, Philip was sent to Spain in February…...
O'Sullivan, John Marcus
O'Sullivan, John Marcus (1881–1948), historian and politician, was born 18 February 1881 at Killarney, the second son of M. O'Sullivan, JP, merchant. He was part of an extended O'Sullivan family grouping, which struggled for dominance of…...
O'Sullivan, Thomas Francis
O'Sullivan, Thomas Francis (1874–1950), journalist, historian, and GAA administrator, was born 16 December 1874 at Glin, Co. Limerick, although the family moved at an early age to Listowel, Co. Kerry. He studied at St Michael's CBS…...
Pakenham, Francis Aungier (‘Frank’)
Pakenham, Francis Aungier (‘Frank’) (1905–2001), 1st Baron Pakenham and 7th earl of Longford , writer and politician, was born 5 December 1905 at 7 Great Cumberland Place, London, the third of six children (and the second son) of Thomas Pakenham (1864–1915), 5th earl of Longford…...
Plowden, Francis Peter
Plowden, Francis Peter (1749–1829), catholic political writer, was born at Plowden Hall, near Bishop's Castle in Shropshire, on 28 June 1749, a younger son of William Ignatius Plowden, the head of an English recusant family. He probably attended the Franciscan School at Edgbaston…...
Plunkett, Count George Noble
Plunkett, Count George Noble (1851–1948), scholar and revolutionary, was born 3 December 1851 at 1 Aungier Street, Dublin, the youngest and only survivor from infancy of the three children of Patrick Joseph Plunkett (1817–1918), builder and politician, and his wife, Elizabeth, née Noble…...
Plunkett, Nicholas
Plunkett, Nicholas (c.1629–1718), historian, was born in north Co. Dublin, son of James Plunkett (d. 1739) and his wife Elizabeth Roper. Nothing is known of his early life. He succeeded to the family seat at Dunsoghly, Co. Dublin, in 1641, on the death of his grandfather…...
Porter, Francis (Walter)
Porter, Francis (Walter) (d. 1702), Franciscan priest and ecclesiastical writer, was the eldest of three sons of Simon Porter, a landed gentleman of an Old English family, from Kingstown near Navan in Co. Meath. He attended a school for Irish students in Lille founded by the…...
Power, Patrick
Power, Patrick (1862–1951), priest, historian, toponymist, and archaeologist, was born 8 March 1862 at Callaghane, Ballygunner, Co. Waterford, several kilometres from Waterford city. Educated at Ballygunner national school and the Catholic University School, Waterford city, he studied…...