Smedley, Jonathan
Smedley, Jonathan (c.1671–1729), Church of Ireland clergyman and author, was born in Dublin. His father's name was John Smedley, and the adult Jonathan, in the preface to his anniversary sermon published in 1715, addressed himself to ‘Mrs Elizabeth Hales, of Putney’,…...
Smithson, Annie M(ary) P(atricia)
Smithson, Annie M(ary) P(atricia) (1873–1948), author, nurse, republican, and trade unionist, was born Margaret Anne Jane Smithson 26 September 1873 at 22 Claremont Rd, Sandymount, Dublin, daughter of Samuel Raynor Smithson, a protestant, unionist barrister, and Margaret Louisa…...
Smythe, Percy Clinton Sydney
Smythe, Percy Clinton Sydney (1780–1855), 6th Viscount Strangford and 1st Baron Penshurst , diplomat and writer, was born 31 August 1780, in Queen St., Mayfair, London, eldest son of Lionel, 5th Viscount Strangford, formerly a captain in the 23rd Foot during the war of American…...
Somerville, Edith Anna Œnone
Somerville, Edith Anna Œnone (1858–1949), and Martin, Violet Florence (‘Martin Ross’) (1862–1915), writers, were, through their mothers, descended from Charles Kendal Bushe (qv), lord chief justice of Ireland. Owing to their…...
Somerville, Henry Boyle Townshend
Somerville, Henry Boyle Townshend (1863–1936), naval officer, hydrographer, and author, was born 7 September 1863 on his family's historic estate at Drishane, Castletownshend, near Castle Haven, Co. Cork, third son of Lt.-col. Thomas Henry Somerville (later high sheriff of Cork) and his…...
Southerne, Thomas
Southerne, Thomas (1660–1746), dramatist and soldier, was born 12 February 1660 at Oxmantown, Dublin, youngest child among four sons and two daughters of Francis Southerne, founder-member of the brewers' corporation of Dublin, and his wife Margaret. Educated at the free school in…...
Spenser, Edmund
Spenser, Edmund (1552?–1599), poet, political writer, government official, and settler in Ireland, was born in London, probably of artisan backgrounde, though little is known of his family. He attended Merchant Taylors’ grammar school, then Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, as a sizar.…...
Stacpoole, Henry de Vere
Stacpoole, Henry de Vere (1863–1951), doctor and novelist, was born 9 April 1863 at Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), Co. Dublin, the youngest child and only son of Rev. William Church Stacpoole, clergyman and director of Kingstown school, and his wife, Charlotte Augusta (née Mountjoy),…...
Starkie, Walter
Starkie, Walter (1894–1976), writer and academic, was born 9 August 1894 in Ballybrack, Co. Dublin, the only son and eldest among six children of the Rt Hon. William Joseph Myles Starkie (qv),…...
Steele, Sir Richard
Steele, Sir Richard (1672–1729), essayist, whig polemicist, and politician, was born in the parish of St Bride's in Dublin, and baptised 12 March 1672. The boy, who had an elder sister, was the only son of Richard Steele and his wife, Eleanor Steele (née Sheyles), widow of Thomas Symes…...
Sterling, James
Sterling, James (1701–63), writer and clergyman, was the son of James Sterling, gentleman landowner, of Dowrass, King's Co.; nothing is known of his mother. He was taught by a Mr Lloyd in Dublin before entering TCD (1716), where he was…...
Sterne, Laurence
Sterne, Laurence (1713–68), novelist and clergyman, was born 24 November 1713 in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, where his father, Roger (1683–1731), an ensign in the 34th Regiment of Foot, had been posted following the treaty of Utrecht, and where he had recently arrived from Flanders, along…...
Stoker, Florence
Stoker, Florence (1858–1937), literary executor and wife of Bram Stoker (qv), was born Florence Anne Lemon Balcombe on 17 July 1858 in Falmouth, Cornwall. She was one of seven children (five girls, two boys) of James Balcombe of…...
Stott, Thomas
Stott, Thomas (1755–1829), linen-bleacher and poet, was born 21 April 1755 at Hillsborough, Co. Down, son of William Stott, a prosperous quaker linen merchant, and Sarah Stott (née Thompson). In 1777 Thomas Stott ceased to have a connection with the Society of Friends as a…...
Sullivan, Lucinda
Sullivan, Lucinda (1831–1881), philanthropist, writer and promoter of children's welfare, was born in 1831, probably in Castleconnell, Co. Limerick, to Captain William Edward Brady , formerly a lieutenant in the 2nd West India Regiment, and subsequently chief constable of police in…...
Supple, Gerald Henry
Supple, Gerald Henry (1823–98), journalist, lawyer, poet, and nationalist, was born in Cork city, eldest son among two sons and four daughters of Thomas Supple, of Bowling Green St., Cork city, and Letitia Anne Supple (née Sherlock), of Ballintemple, Co. Cork, a lineal descendant…...
Swift, Edmund Lewes Lenthall
This is a co-subject for the entry on Swift, Deane Theophilus. View the original entry....
Swift, Jonathan
Swift, Jonathan (1667–1745), writer and clergyman, was born 30 November 1667 in the parish of St Werburgh's in Dublin, second child of Jonathan Swift and Abigail Swift (née Erick), recent immigrants from England, whose daughter Jane was born in 1666. Swift's father, who worked as a…...
Swift, Theophilus
Swift, Theophilus (1746–1815), writer, was born probably in Herefordshire, England, in 1746, son of Deane Swift and his wife and cousin, Mary Harrison. Deane Swift (1707–83), author, was the son of Deane Swift (d. 1714) of Reper's Rest, near Dublin, and his wife Elizabeth, and…...
Swiney (Swiny, Swinny, MacSwinny), Owen Mac
Swiney (Swiny, Swinny, MacSwinny), Owen Mac (1680–1754), playwright and theatre manager, was born near Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. He appears to have joined the army as a young man but by spring 1703 was in London as associate of Christopher Rich at the Drury Lane theatre, where he…...
Synge, (Edmund) John Millington
Synge, (Edmund) John Millington (16 April 1871–1909), writer, was born 16 April 1871 in Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, into an Anglo-Irish family of ecclesiastics and landlords, descended from Bishop Edward Synge (qv) (d. 1678), whose fortunes had…...
Tate (Teate), Nahum
Tate (Teate), Nahum (1652–1715), poet and dramatist (who himself dropped the ‘e’ from the family name when he reached adulthood), was born in Dublin. His father, the Rev.…...
Temple, Sir William
Temple, Sir William (1628–99), author and diplomat, was born 25 April 1628 in Blackfriars, London, eldest son of Sir John Temple (qv), master of the rolls for Ireland and author of The Irish rebellion (1646), and his wife…...
Thompson, Samuel (Sam)
Thompson, Samuel (Sam) (1916–65), playwright and shipyard worker, was born 21 May 1916 at 2 Montrose Street, Ballymacarrett, Belfast, one of the eight children of Hugh Thompson, lamplighter and part-time sexton of the Church of Ireland St Clement's church, and his wife, Margaret, née…...
Tighe, Edward
Tighe, Edward (1740–1801?), politician, lawyer, and writer, was the second son in the family of three sons and two daughters of William Tighe (1710–66) and his first wife Mary (d. 1748), eldest daughter of John Bligh, 1st earl of Darnley. William Tighe, born on 21 December 1710,…...