Firth, Virginia Arabella ('Gay')
Firth, Virginia Arabella ('Gay') (1937–2005), author, journalist and political campaigner, was born in Belfast on 9 January 1937, the eldest of three daughters of Lancelot Turtle, a Belfast businessman and stockbroker, and Helen Ramsey Turtle (1911–46), born in Denver, Colorado,…...
Fitzgerald, Barbara (Barbara Fitzgerald Somerville)
Fitzgerald, Barbara (Barbara Fitzgerald Somerville) (1911–82), novelist, was born 16 December 1911 in Cork, the daughter of Dr J. A. Gregg (qv), then professor of divinity at Trinity College, Dublin. Spending her childhood…...
Fitzgerald, (Fanny Louisa) Geraldine Penrose-
Fitzgerald, (Fanny Louisa) Geraldine Penrose- (1846–1939), novelist and catholic convert, was born 27 January 1846, youngest daughter of Robert Uniacke Penrose-Fitzgerald and his wife Frances Matilda (née Austen); she had at least three brothers and one sister. The Penrose-…...
Forrester, Ellen (Magennis)
Forrester, Ellen (Magennis) (1828–83), nationalist and poet, was probably born in Clones, Co. Monaghan, sixth child of a local schoolmaster; her mother was a presbyterian, who in later life converted to catholicism. At the age of 17 she moved to England, and after a period working…...
Foster, Lydia Mary
Foster, Lydia Mary (1867–1943), writer and schoolteacher, was born in Newmills, Co. Tyrone in 1867, fourth of six children (three sons and three daughters) of James Foster, presbyterian minister of Newmills congregation 1850–90, and his wife Lydia (née Harkness), from a presbyterian…...
Frankau, Julia (‘Frank Danby’)
Frankau, Julia (‘Frank Danby’) (1859–1916), art historian and novelist, was born 30 July 1859 in Dublin, into an English Jewish family, seventh among nine children of Hyman Davis (d. 1871), dentist and later artist/photographer, and his wife Isabella. Her parents arrived in Dublin in…...
Furlong, Alice
Furlong, Alice (1871–1946), poet, was born at Knocklaiquin Lodge, near Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, one of four daughters of James Walter Furlong, the sports editor of a Dublin newspaper, who was originally from Wexford. Her sisters Mary (1866–98) and Katherine (1872–94) became published…...
Gaffney, Gertrude (‘Gertie’,‘Conor Galway’)
Gaffney, Gertrude (‘Gertie’,‘Conor Galway’) (d. 1959), journalist, was born in Middletown, Co. Armagh, and educated at St Louis convent, Carrickmacross. Under the pen name ‘Conor Galway’ she published several stories and one novel, Workers towards the dawn (1919). She was…...
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…...
Garvey, Máire (Mary) McDonnell
Garvey, Máire (Mary) McDonnell - (1927–2009), traditional musician and writer, was born 10 July 1927 on a farm in Tobracken, near Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon, one of three children (a girl and two boys) of James McDonnell and his wife Annie Theresa (née Talbot). As well as farming…...
Gonne, Iseult
Gonne, Iseult (1894–1954), writer and muse, was born 6 August 1894 in Paris, daughter of Lucien Millevoye, French politician, lawyer, and journalist, and Maud Gonne (qv), Irish revolutionary nationalist. She was their second child…...
Graves, Clotilde Inez Mary (‘Richard Dehan’)
Graves, Clotilde Inez Mary (‘Richard Dehan’) (1863–1932), novelist, dramatist, and journalist, was born 3 June 1863 at Buttevant barracks, Co. Cork, the third daughter of Major W. H. Graves and Antoinette Graves (née Deane). Her father was a cousin of the journalist and critic…...
Gregg, Anne (Deirdre)
Gregg, Anne (Deirdre) (1940–2006), broadcaster and travel writer, was born 11 February 1940 in Dundonald, east Belfast. Her father was a civil servant employed in the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland and her mother was a dressmaker. She had one brother. Anne attended Strathearn…...
Gregory, (Isabella) Augusta
Gregory, (Isabella) Augusta (1852–1932), Lady Gregory, writer, folklorist and patron of the arts, was born Isabella Augusta Persse at Roxborough House, Co. Galway, on 15 March 1852. She was the ninth of thirteen children (eight boys and five girls) of Dudley Persse and his second wife…...
Grierson (Crawley), Constantia
Grierson (Crawley), Constantia (c.1705–1732), editor, scholar, and one of Swift's female literary circle, was born Constantia Crawley in Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny, into a poor family. Little is known of her early life or education, save from the memoirs of her friend…...
Griffith, Elizabeth
Griffith, Elizabeth (1727–93), playwright, novelist, and actress, was born in Glamorgan, Wales, on 11 October 1727, the daughter of Thomas Griffith (1680?–1744), at one time actor–manager of the Smock Alley theatre, Dublin, and originally from Wales, and his wife, Jane (née Foxcroft…...
Grimshaw, Beatrice Ethel
Grimshaw, Beatrice Ethel (1870–1953), author and traveller, was born 3 February 1870 at Cloona House, Dunmurry, Co. Antrim, fourth child among two sons and four daughters of Nicholas William Grimshaw of Belfast, former director of the Ulster Spinning Company turned wine-and-oil merchant…...
Guerin, Veronica
Guerin, Veronica (1958–96), journalist, was born 5 July 1958 (not, as often given, 1959) in Dublin, one of five children of Christopher Guerin, accountant, and his wife, Bernadette. She was educated by the Holy Faith nuns at Killester and in 1988 earned a diploma in marketing management…...
Gyles, Althea
Gyles, Althea (1868–1949), poet and artist, was born in Kilmurry, Co. Waterford. Her father, George Gyles, came from a well-connected Anglo-Irish family, who, according to W. B. Yeats (qv), were ‘so haughty that their neighbours…...
Hall, Anna Maria
Hall, Anna Maria (1800–81), writer, editor, and philanthropist, was born 6 January 1800 in Anne Street, Dublin, the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth Fielding (d. 1856), a widow of Huguenot extraction. Her father, who died in Anna Maria's infancy, came from Co. Wexford. She spent her…...
Hamilton, Elizabeth
Hamilton, Elizabeth (1758–1816), writer, was born 25 July 1758 in Belfast, the youngest child of Charles Hamilton, a merchant from an old Scottish family, the Hamiltons of Woodhall, and his wife Katherine (Mackay) Hamilton (d. 1767) of Dublin. She had one sister, Katharine, and one…...
Hamilton (Tighe), (Marianne) Caroline
Hamilton (Tighe), (Marianne) Caroline (1777–1861), artist and memoirist, was the second daughter of William Tighe (1738–82), of Rossana, Co. Wicklow, landowner and MP for Athboy, Co. Meath (1761–76), and Sarah Tighe (née Fownes) (1743–1829). Her father was a friend of…...
Harnett, Dorothy Grace
Harnett, Dorothy Grace (Waring , Dorothy Gainsborough) (1891–1977), fascist and novelist, was born in Woolwich, London, only child of Col. Henry Waring, a Royal Artillery officer from an east Co. Down gentry family, and his wife Florence. Much of her childhood was spent in Malta and…...
Harrison, Letitia Dunbar- (Crawford, Aileen)
Harrison, Letitia Dunbar- (Crawford, Aileen) (1906–94), librarian and methodist activist, was born Letitia Elizabeth Eileen Dunbar in Dundrum, Co. Dublin, on 4 February 1906, the youngest of at least four children of Arthur Dunbar, a commercial traveller, and his wife Margaret (née…...
Hart, Josephine
Hart, Josephine (1942–2011), writer, theatrical producer and poetry promoter, was born on 1 March 1942 in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, the eldest of five children of Dermot Hart and his wife Sheila (née Donoghue). Her father had been a commercial traveller and a lorry driver, until…...