Hopkins, Gerard Manley
Hopkins, Gerard Manley (1844–89), poet and Jesuit, was born 28 July 1844 at 87 The Grove, Stratford, Essex, eldest of nine children (eight of whom survived to adulthood) of Manley Hopkins (1818–1897), marine insurance adjuster, and his wife, Catherine, or Kate (née Smith; 1821–1920).…...
Huddleston, Robert
Huddleston, Robert (1814–87), poet, was born 5 April 1814 in Moneyrea, near Comber, Co. Down, son of James and Agnes Huddleston of Moneyrea, farmers. He was educated in Cowan's school, Moneyrea; when he grew up, he farmed about fifteen acres, and, like his father, repaired guns. He…...
Hyde, Douglas (de hÍde, Dubhghlas)
Hyde, Douglas (de hÍde, Dubhghlas) (1860–1949), Gaelic scholar, founder of the Gaelic League, and first president of Ireland, was born 17 January 1860 in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, fourth child among three sons and two daughters of the Rev. Arthur Hyde (descended from the Hydes of…...
Ingram, John Kells
Ingram, John Kells (1823–1907), economist, poet, and academic, was born 7 July 1823, eldest of five children of the Rev. William Ingram and Elizabeth Ingram (née Cooke). His father, a scholar at TCD in 1790, was rector of Templecarne,…...
Jebb, Richard
Jebb, Richard (1766–1834), author and judge, was born in Drogheda, Co. Louth, and baptised on 24 July 1766, elder son among two sons and three daughters of John Jebb (d. 1796), alderman of the borough, and his second wife Alice or Alicia (née Forster; d. 1790). His younger brother…...
Jeffares, Alexander Norman
Jeffares, Alexander Norman (1920–2005), literary scholar (known in academia as A. Norman Jeffares, to friends as 'Derry ') was born 11 August 1920 at Elmgrove House, Milltown, Co. Dublin, son of Cecil Norman Jeffares, accountant to the …...
Jemison, Mary ('Deh-he-wä-mis')
Jemison, Mary ('Deh-he-wä-mis') (1743?–1833), American frontierswoman, was born aboard the ship William and Mary, when her parents, Thomas Jemison and his wife Jane (née Erwin), (both of protestant Scotch-Irish heritage) were emigrating to colonial Pennsylvania, departing from…...
Jephson, Robert
Jephson, Robert (1737–1803), dramatist, poet and satirist, was born in Ireland in 1737, the younger son of John Jephson, archdeacon of Cloyne (d. June 1742), and his wife, Elizabeth (née Crosse). A member of the Anglo-Irish family from Mallow, Co. Cork, he was educated at Dr Ford's…...
Johnson, Lionel Pigot
Johnson, Lionel Pigot (1867–1902), poet and critic, was born 15 March 1867 at Broadstairs, Kent, third son of William Johnson (1822–91), captain in the 90th Regiment of light infantry, and Catherine Johnson (née Walters). His paternal great-grandfather was …...
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…...
Johnstone, Thomas McGimpsey
Johnstone, Thomas McGimpsey (1876–1961), presbyterian minister, temperance campaigner and author, was born on 11 June 1876 in Newtownards, Co. Down, son of Joseph Hamilton Johnstone, a builder, and his wife Rosena (née McGimpsey). The family was staunchly presbyterian (with covenanter…...
Johnston, (William) Denis
Johnston, (William) Denis (1901–84), playwright, was born 18 June 1901 in Ballsbridge, Dublin, the only child of William John Johnston (qv), barrister (later a supreme court judge), and his wife, Kathleen (née King), teacher and…...
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…...
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…...
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…...
Leech, Sarah
Leech, Sarah (b. 1809), poet, was born in 1809, in the townland of Ballylennan in the parish of Taughboyne, Co. Donegal. She was the youngest of six children of a protestant, probably presbyterian, weaver and farmer named Thomas Leech. When Sarah was only three years old, her father…...
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…...
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…...