Johnstone (Johnston), Charles
Johnstone (Johnston), Charles (c.1719–c.1800), writer, was born at Carrigogunnell, Co. Limerick, son of Thomas Johnstone (or Johnston) and his wife, née Sharpe. Educated at the local diocesan school, he entered TCD but…...
Keightley, Thomas
Keightley, Thomas (1789–1872), writer, was born in Dublin on 17 October 1789, son of Thomas Keightley, merchant of Newtown, Co. Kildare; nothing is known of his mother. He entered TCD (July 1803) and graduated…...
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…...
King, Richard Ashe
King, Richard Ashe (1839–1932), clergyman and writer, was born 9 November 1839 in Ennis, Co. Clare, son of Dr Luke White King, an ordained protestant minister who ran the endowed Erasmus Smith College in Ennis. Richard was educated at his father's school and at…...
Lardner, Dionysius
Lardner, Dionysius (1793–1859), scientist and writer, was born 3 April 1793 in Dublin, son of William O'Brien Lardner, solicitor, and Mary Ann Lardner (maiden name unknown). He seems to have had at least one younger brother, and may have been christened Dennis, but was calling…...
Leadbeater, Mary
Leadbeater, Mary (née Shackleton) (1758–1826), author, poet, and memoirist, was born 1 December 1758 at Ballitore (‘Ballintore’), Co. Kildare, the second child of the three daughters and one son of…...
Leathley, Mary Elizabeth Southwell (née Dudley)
Leathley, Mary Elizabeth Southwell (née Dudley) (1818–99), writer, was born 18 June 1818 in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, the daughter of George Dudley, a member of the Society of Friends. She published her first book when she was sixteen, and subsequently became a prolific writer of…...
Le Blond, Elizabeth (‘Lizzie’) Alice Frances (née Hawkins-Whitshed; other married names Burnaby, Main)
Le Blond, Elizabeth (‘Lizzie’) Alice Frances (née Hawkins-Whitshed; other married names Burnaby, Main) (1860–1934), mountaineer, author and photographer, was born 26 June 1860 in Dublin, the only child of Sir St Vincent Bentinck Hawkins-Whitshed, 3rd (and last) baronet of Killincarrick…...
Le Fanu, Joseph Thomas Sheridan
Le Fanu, Joseph Thomas Sheridan (1814–73), novelist and journalist, was born 28 August 1814 in Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, eldest son and second child of three children of the Rev. Thomas Philip Le Fanu (1784–1845), Church of Ireland clergyman, and his wife, Emma Lucretia (née…...
Lever, Charles James
Lever, Charles James (1806–72), novelist, was born 31 August 1806 in Dublin, younger of two sons of James Lever, a contract builder from Lancashire who worked on the Custom House and Maynooth College, and Julie Lever (née Chandler), also of English descent, who was from Kilkenny.…...
Lewis, Cecil Day (Nicholas Blake)
Lewis, Cecil Day (Nicholas Blake) (1904–72), poet, was born 27 April 1904 in Ballintubbert, Co. Laois, the only child of Frank Cecil Day-Lewis, Church of Ireland curate, and his wife, Kathleen Blake (née Squires), herself the youngest of the ten children of the director of the General…...
Lewis, Clive Staples (‘Jack’)
Lewis, Clive Staples (‘Jack’) (1898–1963), writer, scholar, and Christian apologist, was born 29 November 1898 in Dundela Villas, Belfast, the younger son of Albert James Lewis, police solicitor and unionist activist, and his wife, Florence (Flora) Augusta, daughter of the Rev.…...
Liddiard, Jane Susannah (J. S.) Anna
Liddiard, Jane Susannah (J. S.) Anna (c.1780–p.1819?), poet, was born in Co. Meath, daughter of Sir Henry Wilkinson , of Corballis, Co. Meath. She dedicated her Poems (Dublin, 1810) to her husband, the Rev. William Liddiard (1773–1841), an anglican clergyman of…...
Lucas, Henry
Lucas, Henry (c.1740–1802), lawyer and writer, was born in Dublin, the son of Charles Lucas (qv), the well-known politician and physician, and his first wife, Anne, née Blundell. Charles Lucas had to leave Ireland in 1749,…...
Lysaght, Edward
Lysaght, Edward (1763–1810), lawyer, wit, and versifier, was the only son of John Lysaght, landed gentleman of Brickhill, Co. Clare, and Jane Eyre Dalton, daughter of Edward Dalton of Deerpark, Co. Clare, and first cousin of Lord Eyre of Eyrecourt, Co. Galway. Edward obtained his early…...
Lyster, Thomas William
Lyster, Thomas William (1855–1922), librarian and author, was born 17 December 1855 in Co. Kilkenny, son of Thomas Lyster of Rathdowney, Co. Laois, and Jane Lyster (née Smith) of Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. Of a quaker family, he was educated at Wesley College, Dublin, before…...
Mac Brádaigh, Philip
Mac Brádaigh, Philip (c.1650–c.1719), poet and clergyman, commonly known as ‘Philip Ministir’ or ‘Parson Brady’, was born in Co. Cavan about the middle of the seventeenth century, probably in the district to the west of Cootehill that had previously formed the Cúil…...
Mac Conmara, Donnchadh ‘Rua’
Mac Conmara, Donnchadh ‘Rua’ (c.1715–1810), poet, is believed to have been born in Cratloe, Co. Clare, but his early life is obscure and nothing is known of his family. According to tradition, he studied for the priesthood at the Irish college in Rome for five years, was…...
MacDermott, Martin
MacDermott, Martin (1823–1905), poet and architect, was born 8 April 1823 in Dublin, son of John MacDermott (1785–1842), prosperous merchant and perfumer, and Amélie Thérèse MacDermott (née Boshell), of French descent. Although educated as a catholic on Usher's Quay and later at a…...
Mac Gearailt, Piaras (Fitzgerald, Pierce)
Mac Gearailt, Piaras (Fitzgerald, Pierce) (c.1709–c.1792), poet, was born in Ballykinealy, near Ballymacoda, Co. Cork, into a branch of the Fitzgeralds who were related to the knights of Kerry but had lost most of their property as a result of their involvement in the…...
MacLysaght, Edward Anthony Edgeworth
MacLysaght, Edward Anthony Edgeworth (1887–1986), farmer, horticulturist, poet, novelist, senator, historian, and genealogist, was born 6 November 1887 at Flax Bourton, Somerset, the elder of the two sons of Sidney Royse Lysaght, novelist, poet, and businessman, and his wife, Kathrine,…...
MacMahon, Ella
MacMahon, Ella (1864–1956), novelist, was born Eleanor Harriet on 23 July 1864 in Dublin, elder of two children of the Rev. John Henry MacMahon (1829–1900), curate of St Werburgh's, Dublin (1860–71), and later chaplain of Mountjoy prison (1887–1900), and Frances MacMahon (née…...
MacNally, Leonard
MacNally, Leonard (1752?–1820), barrister, writer, United Irishman, and informer, was born in Dublin, the only son of William MacNally (d. 1756), a grocer. It seems that his mother brought him up with the support of his uncle, a merchant named Featherstone of St Mary's Lane. A…...
Madden, Samuel Molyneux (‘Premium Madden
Madden, Samuel Molyneux (‘Premium Madden ’) (1686–1765), writer and philanthropist, was born in Dublin on 23 December 1686, the second son of John Madden MD (d. 1703), one of the original members of the Irish College of Physicians, and his first…...
Malleson (Annesley), Lady Constance Mary (‘Colette O'Niel’)
Malleson (Annesley), Lady Constance Mary (‘Colette O'Niel’) (1895–1975), actress and writer, was born 24 October 1895 at Castlewellan, Co. Down, the second daughter of the marriage of Hugh, fifth earl of Annesley (qv) and Priscilla…...