Barr, Andrew (Andy)
Barr, Andrew (Andy) (1913–2003), trade unionist and communist, was born 23 September 1913 at 29 Cluan Place, off Mountpottinger Road, Ballymacarrett, Belfast, second child among two sons and five daughters (two other children died in infancy) of Andrew Barr (d. 1986, aged 98), a…...
Blease, William John ('Billy')
Blease, William John ('Billy') (1914–2008), Baron Blease of Cromac, trade unionist and politician, was born 28 May 1914 in Gosford Street, off the Ormeau Road, Belfast, eldest of three sons and one daughter of William John Blease (1886–1954), restaurant chef and trade-union activist,…...
Bowman, Alexander
Bowman, Alexander (1855–1924), trade unionist, was born 16 March 1855 at Dromara, Co. Down, eldest child among three sons and two daughters of William McKeown, farmer and weaver, and his wife Elizabeth (née Rodgers). McKeown was a catholic; Rodgers, a presbyterian, had been previously…...
Boyd, Thomas William (‘Tom’)
Boyd, Thomas William (‘Tom’) (1903–91), socialist and trade unionist, was born 13 April 1903 in Woodstock Road, east Belfast, one of nine children of James Boyd, shipyard clerk, and Mary Boyd (née McCully), both originally from Co. Down. He left Ravenscroft national school,…...
Burn, Thomas Henry
Burn, Thomas Henry (1875–1949), trade unionist and politician, was born in Belfast, son of Thomas Henry Burn. Little is known of his family life but he was educated at Belfast National School and subsequently trained as a lithographic printer. The Ulster Unionist Labour…...
Capper, Wilfrid Meredyth
Capper, Wilfrid Meredyth (1905–89), conservationist and creator of the Ulster Way, was born in Belfast on 12 July 1905, the second son of four children (two boys and two girls) of John Malcolmson Capper, a cotton yarn merchant, and Elizabeth Jane Capper (née Stewart); the family was…...
Clotworthy, Upton
This is a co-subject for the entry on Upton, Arthur. View the original entry....
Forbes, Sir Arthur
Forbes, Sir Arthur (1623–c.1696), 1st earl of Granard , soldier and politician, was born in Longford, son of Sir Arthur Forbes, 1st Baron Granard, of Castle Forbes, Co. Longford (originally from Aberdeenshire, Scotland), and his wife Lady Jane Lauder (née Hamilton) of the Isle…...
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…...
Gamble, John
Gamble, John (1770?–1831), physician, traveller, and writer, was born at Strabane, Co. Tyrone, into a local presbyterian family and reared by an uncle (perhaps John Sproull of Strabane), an apothecary. It is likely that he came under the influence of…...
Haddick, Victor Anderson
Haddick, Victor Anderson (1887–1950), soldier, traveller, writer, and film maker and promoter, was born 14 June 1887 at Crinkill (Crinkle), Parsonstown (Birr), King's Co. (Offaly), the eldest son of Richard J. Haddick, a soldier, and his wife Jane Anne (née Anderson). He was educated…...
Henderson, Oscar
This is a co-subject for the entry on Henderson, James. View the original entry....
Heron, Archibald (‘Archie’)
Heron, Archibald (‘Archie’) (1895–1971), socialist and trade unionist, was born in Portadown, Co. Armagh, into a presbyterian family, probably one of seven children of Samuel Heron, a physician and surgeon, and his wife Bessie (née Beck). He was educated locally before moving to…...
Hughes, Brendan
Hughes, Brendan (1948–2008), IRA activist, was born at Blackwater Street off the Grosvenor Road in west Belfast in June 1948, the second of six children (five boys and one girl) of Kevin Barry Hughes, a builders' labourer. A great-grandfather was an IRA member in Co. Louth wounded in…...
Ingoldsby, Sir Henry
Ingoldsby, Sir Henry (1622–1701), soldier and officeholder, was the son of Sir Richard Ingoldsby, landowner, and Elizabeth Ingoldsby (née Cromwell) of Lethenborough, Buckinghamshire, England. He may have attended the Thame grammar school in Buckinghamshire (like his brother Richard…...
Keenan, Brian Paschal
Keenan, Brian Paschal (1941–2008), republican paramilitary, was born on 17 July 1941, in Dysert, Draperstown, Co. Londonderry, one of six children of Henry Keenan, an accountant, and his wife Jean (née McAlea). During the second world war Keenan's father served at Pocklington air base (…...
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…...
MacArthur, Sir William Porter
MacArthur, Sir William Porter (1884–1964), army medical officer, Irish-language scholar, and historian, was born 11 March 1884 at Belmont, east Belfast, Co. Down, the only son of John Porter MacArthur (d. 1930), tea merchant, and his wife Margaret Rainey (d. 1936), daughter of William…...
Malley, James Young (‘Jim’)
Malley, James Young (‘Jim’) (1918–2000), civil servant and airman, was born 24 July 1918 near Aughnacloy, Co. Tyrone, one of four sons and one daughter of Francis William Malley, a local farmer and merchant, and his wife Ruby Elizabeth (née Young). The family was methodist. He…...
McMahon (McMechan), Arthur
McMahon (McMechan), Arthur (1755?–1816?), presbyterian minister, United Irishman, and officer in the French army, was born, probably in 1755, at Donanelly in the parish of Inch, Co. Down; he was the younger son of Alexander McMechan (d. c.1793), a prosperous farmer there…...
McMullen, William
McMullen, William (1888–1982), trade unionist and politician, was born in Lilliput Street, Belfast, son of Joseph McMullen, shop owner, of County Monaghan; his mother was a native of County Cavan. When he was two years old, his family moved to a bigger shop on Shore Road, Belfast…...
Midgley, Henry Cassidy (‘Harry’)
Midgley, Henry Cassidy (‘Harry’) (1892–1957), trade unionist and politician, was born 8 September 1892 at 59 Seaview St., Belfast, third child and eldest son among two daughters and three sons of Alexander Midgley (1860–99), shipyard labourer, originally of Lurgan, Co. Armagh,…...
Monro (Munro), Robert
Monro (Munro), Robert (d. c.1680), army officer, was the son of George Monro of Obsdale, Ross-shire, northern Scotland, and his wife Catherine (née Monro). After some time at the University of St Andrews, he began his military career in French service and in 1626 was…...
Monro (Munro), Sir George
Monro (Munro), Sir George (d. 1694), army officer, was third son of Col. John Monro of Obsdale, Ross-shire, northern Scotland, and his wife Catherine (née Gordon). He entered Swedish military service in 1637, reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel, but in 1640 joined other…...
Redpath, James
Redpath, James (1833–91), journalist, abolitionist and Land Leaguer, was born 24 August 1833 in Berwick-on-Tweed on the Anglo–Scottish border , eldest of nine children (two sons and two daughters survived to adulthood) of Ninian Davidson Redpath, schoolmaster, and his wife Maria (née…...