Harty, Sir (Herbert) Hamilton
Harty, Sir (Herbert) Hamilton (1879–1941), pianist, accompanist, composer, arranger, and conductor, was born 4 December 1879 in Hillsborough, Co. Down. His father, William Michael Harty (b. Limerick, 1852; d. Hillsborough, Co. Down, 1 November 1918), became a chorister and organ…...
Herbert, Victor
Herbert, Victor (1859–1924), composer, was born 1 February 1859 in Dublin, son of Edward Herbert, artist, and Fanny Herbert (née Lover). Victor's father died when he was 3, and he was initially raised by his grandfather, the novelist and composer …...
Hewson, George Henry Philips
Hewson, George Henry Philips (1881–1972), organist, composer, and teacher, was born 19 November 1881, youngest among ten children of Edmund Hewson and his wife Caroline (née Page). In 1888 he joined the school and choir of St Patrick's cathedral, Dublin. He showed an early aptitude…...
Hone, Joseph Maunsell
Hone, Joseph Maunsell (1882–1959), critic, biographer, and publisher, was born 8 February 1882 at Queen's Park, Monkstown, Co. Dublin, the eldest son of William Hone (1842–1919), a well-known cricketer who played for Ireland and the MCC, and his wife, Sarah, the daughter of James…...
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).…...
Hudson, Henry
Hudson, Henry (1798–1889), collector of traditional music, was born 23 March 1798, probably in Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, third son of Edward Hudson and Frances Hudson (née Barton). Family tradition states that he was given the middle name ‘Philerin’ (‘love of Ireland’), which suggests…...
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 …...
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…...
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, Cecil Harmsworth
King, Cecil Harmsworth (1901–87), publisher, was born 20 February 1901 at Poynter's Hall, Totteridge, Hertfordshire, England (home of his grandmother, Geraldine Harmsworth (qv)), second son and fifth child among seven children of…...
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…...
Lawrence, John Fortune
Lawrence, John Fortune (1833–97), sporting merchant and publisher, was born 13 January 1833 in Dublin, the eldest of six brothers and five sisters (three of each reaching adulthood) of William Lawrence (d. 1887), a clerk of works at the General Post Office (GPO), and his wife Elizabeth…...
Leathley, Joseph
Leathley, Joseph (d. 1757), ‘college binder’, printer, and bookseller, joined the Dublin printers, guild in July 1719, having been sworn a freeman of the city earlier in the year. He initially undertook a small number of joint publishing ventures with other members of the trade in…...
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 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.…...
Lloyd, Edward
Lloyd, Edward (fl. 1700–1732), coffee house proprietor, publisher, and writer, was born in England and probably moved to Dublin in the 1690s. Nothing is known of his parents. A namesake, Edward Lloyd (d. 1713), founded (c.1688) Lloyd's coffee house in London, which…...