Chesney, Francis Rawdon
Chesney, Francis Rawdon (1789–1872), soldier and explorer, was born 16 March 1789 at Ballyveagh, near Annalong, Co. Down, eldest son of Capt. Alexander Chesney, coastguard officer, of Ballymena, Co. Antrim, and his second wife, Jane (née Wilson), of Ballymena. Capt. Chesney had been…...
Chesson, Eleanor (‘Nora’)
Chesson, Eleanor (‘Nora’) (née Hopper ) (1871–1906), poet and writer, was born 2 January 1871 at 8 Radnor Place, St Leonards, Devon, the daughter of Captain Harman Baillie Hopper, an Irish officer retired from the 31st Bengal native infantry, and Caroline Augusta Francis, who was…...
Chetwood, Anna Maria
Chetwood, Anna Maria (1774–1870), writer, was born on 7 February 1774, a daughter of the Rev. John Chetwood of Glanmire, Co. Cork (1742–1814), and Elizabeth Chetwood (née Hamilton) (d. 1826?), and great-granddaughter of Knightley Chetwood of Woodbrook, Portarlington, a friend of…...
Chetwood, William Rufus
Chetwood, William Rufus (d. 1766), prompter, publisher, and author, was most probably born in England. Little is known of his early life, but his own accounts, and the fact that he wrote several seafaring adventures, indicate that he had travelled around the world as a young man,…...
Chichester, Frederick Richard
Chichester, Frederick Richard (1827–53), earl of Belfast and littérateur, was born 25 November 1827, second son of George Hamilton Chichester, 3rd marquess of Donegall, and his wife Harriet, daughter of Richard Butler (qv), 1st earl of…...
Childers, (Robert) Erskine
Childers, (Robert) Erskine (1870–1922), British civil servant, author, and Sinn Féin propagandist, was born 25 June 1870 in London, second son among five children of Robert Caesar Childers, private secretary to the governor of Ceylon and scholar of Buddhism, and Anna Henrietta Childers…...
Clancy, Michael
Clancy, Michael (c.1704–1776), writer, was born in Co. Clare, son of Daniel Clancy, a soldier (or possibly a doctor) and a man of letters. His life, as recounted in his Memoirs (an incomplete and somewhat fanciful account), is dedicated to the earl of Kildare. He…...
Clancy, Patrick
Clancy, Patrick (1877–1947), trade unionist, revolutionary, and politician, was born 17 March 1877 in the family home at Grange, Bruff, Co. Limerick, second child in the large family of John Clancy (d. 1935), carpenter, of Doneraile, Co. Cork and Bridget Clancy (née Farrell) (d.…...
Clarke, Austin
Clarke, Austin (1896–1974), poet, novelist, and verse dramatist, was born 9 May 1896 at 83 Manor Street, Dublin, the only surviving boy among twelve children, of which three girls also survived. His father, Augustine Clarke (d. 2 November 1918), an official in Dublin corporation, became…...
Clarke (McFall), Frances Bellenden (Sarah Grand)
Clarke (McFall), Frances Bellenden (Sarah Grand) (1854–1943), novelist and feminist, was born 10 June 1854 at Donaghadee, Co. Down, where her father, Edward Bellenden Clarke, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was stationed in the coastguard. Her mother was Margaret (née Bell Sherwood…...
Clark, Wallace
Clark, Wallace (1926–2011), yachtsman, writer and businessman, was born in Upperlands, Co. Derry, on 20 November 1926, one of three children, two boys and a girl, of Harry Francis Clark, of Rockwood in Upperlands, and his wife Sybil Emily (née Stuart). His father was a director and…...
Clayton, Eleanor (‘Ellen’) Creathorne
Clayton, Eleanor (‘Ellen’) Creathorne (1834–1900), illustrator and writer, was born 15 February 1834 in Gloucester Terrace, Dublin, the eldest child and only daughter of Benjamin Clayton III (1809–83), a member of a long-established family of Dublin engravers, and his wife Mary (née…...
Cleeve, Brian Talbot
Cleeve, Brian Talbot (1921–2003), writer and broadcaster, was born 22 November 1921 in Thorpe Bay, Essex, England, second of three sons of Charles Edward Cleeve (1891–1966), businessman, and the first of his four wives, Josephine (née Talbot) (d. 1924), daughter of an Essex estate…...
Clerke, Ellen Mary
Clerke, Ellen Mary (1840–1906), journalist and writer, was born 26 September 1840 in Skibbereen, Co. Cork, elder daughter among three children of John William Clerke (1814–90), manager of the Provincial Bank, and his wife Catherine Mary, sister of lawyer…...
Clery, Arthur Edward
Clery, Arthur Edward (1879–1932), nationalist and author, was the only child of Art Ua Cléirigh, lawyer and amateur historian, and his wife Catherine Clery (née Moylan). During his boyhood his family suffered a crisis: his father went to the Indian bar to recoup family finances, his…...
Clery, William Edward
Clery, William Edward (c.1861–1931), writer and trade unionist, was born in Ireland in 1861 or 1862, son of John and Helen Clery. In 1877 he emigrated with his parents to London, penniless, and in 1878 entered the civil service, becoming a second-class inland sorter at the…...
Clifford, Mary (‘Mai’)
Clifford, Mary (‘Mai’) (née Hollingsworth ) (1913–86), trade union official and laundress, was born 25 September 1913 at Phoenix Park, Glasgow, Scotland, the elder of one daughter and one son of Joseph Hollingsworth, a blacksmith from Co. Kerry, and his wife Elizabeth, a Glasgow…...
Clifford, Sigerson
Clifford, Sigerson (1913–85), author, was born Edward Bernard Clifford on 8 May 1913, at Dean St., Cork, son of Michael Clifford, tailor, and Mary Anne Clifford (née Sigerson), both of Caherciveen, Co. Kerry. The family returned to Caherciveen when he was two, and he was educated at…...
Clive (Raftor), Catherine (Kitty)
Clive (Raftor), Catherine (Kitty) (1711–85), comic actress, singer, and writer, was probably born in London on 5 November 1711. Her father, William Raftor or Rafter, was a Kilkenny-born lawyer, who lost his claim on a large estate following his support of…...
Cluskey, Frank (Francis)
Cluskey, Frank (Francis) (1930–89), trade unionist and politician, was born 8 April 1930 at 83 St Ignatius Road, off Lower Dorset Street, Dublin, youngest of two sons and three daughters of Francis (‘Frank’) Cluskey (c.1890–1955), a butcher and active trade unionist, and…...
Cochrane, Ian
Cochrane, Ian (1941–2004), writer, was born 7 November 1941 in a two‑room cottage at Moylarg, Dromona (near Cullybackey), Co. Antrim. He was the third of five children of Tom and Sadie Cochrane and had three brothers and a sister. 'We lived in a little house right out in the country,…...
Cockburn, Patricia Evangeline Anne
Cockburn, Patricia Evangeline Anne (1914–89), author and artist, was born 17 March 1914 at Derry House, Rosscarbery, Co. Cork, youngest among six children of Maj. John Bernard Arbuthnot , and his wife Olive, daughter of Sir Henry…...
Cockburn, Sir George
Cockburn, Sir George (1764–1847), soldier, traveller, writer, and antiquary, was born 18 February 1764 in Dublin, only child of George Cockburn (d. 1775), a Scottish businessman who settled in Ireland in 1739 and married Ann (d. 1769), second of two children of Charles Caldwell,…...
Code, Henry Brereton
Code, Henry Brereton (c.1770–1838), journalist, dramatist, and government agent (whose real name appears to have been Cody), was educated in a seminary. He began his career as a retailer of hose at Skinner Row, Dublin (1793). After the failure of this business and other…...
Coffey, Brian
Coffey, Brian (1905–95), poet, academic, teacher, and publisher, was born 8 June 1905 at Glenageary, Co. Dublin, son of Denis J. Coffey (qv), president of UCD, and Maude Coffey (née Quin…...