Pilkington, Matthew
Pilkington, Matthew (1700/01–1774), anglican clergyman and poet, was born in Ballyboy, between Tullamore and Birr, King's Co. (Offaly), son of William Pilkington, watchmaker. The family subsequently transferred to the Lazar's Hill (Hawkins St.) area of Dublin. Matthew was tutored…...
Ponsonby, Sarah (‘Sally’)
Ponsonby, Sarah (‘Sally’) (1755–1831), diarist, was born in Dublin in 1755, the only and orphaned daughter of Chambré Brabazon Ponsonby (d. 1762), a landowner, of Ashgrove, Co. Kilkenny, and the second of his three wives, Louisa Ponsonby (née Lyons), the daughter of a clerk of the Irish…...
Preston, William
Preston, William (1750–1807), lawyer, poet, and dramatist, was born in St Michan's parish, Dublin, the only son of William Preston, a gentleman, who disappeared about 1755, after setting out for India. William jnr attended Dr Campbell's school, Dublin, before entering as a…...
Pulter, Lady Hester
Pulter, Lady Hester (1605–78), author, was born on 8 June 1605 in Thomas Court, a neighbourhood adjacent to Dublin. She was the eighth of ten children of…...
Quin, Walter
Quin, Walter (c.1575–1640), writer and royal tutor, was born into a Dublin merchant family. In 1590 he joined the law faculty of the Jesuit University of Ingolstadt where he moved in recusant circles and where his literary aspirations were noted. That year he contributed…...
Radcliffe, John
Radcliffe, John (1765?–1843), lawyer, judge, PC, and author, was born in Co. Fermanagh, only son of Richard Radcliffe, clergyman, and his wife Christian, daughter of Robert Mason of Co. Galway and widow of Joseph Ormsby. After his father's…...
Read, Charles Anderson
Read, Charles Anderson (1841–78), writer, journalist, and editor, was born 10 November 1841 at Killsellagh (Kilsella) House, in the parish of Drumcliffe, near Sligo. His father, George Read, was a gentleman who, having lost an inheritance, was forced to take a position as…...
Riddell, Charlotte Eliza Lawson
Riddell, Charlotte Eliza Lawson (1832–1906), novelist, was born on 30 September 1832 at the Barn, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, the youngest daughter of James Cowan, flax and cotton spinner and high sheriff of Antrim, and his English wife Ellen (née Kilshaw). Her father died in 1851…...
Robertson, Olivia Melian
Robertson, Olivia Melian (1917–2013), writer, artist and co-founder of the Fellowship of Isis, was born on 13 April 1917 at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London, to Manning Durdin Robertson (qv), urban planner and architect, and…...
Robinson, Lennox
Robinson, Lennox (1886–1958), playwright and director, was born Esmé Stuart Lennox Robinson on 4 October 1886 near Douglas, Co. Cork, youngest of seven children (of whom twins died in infancy) of Andrew Craig Robinson, stockbroker, and Emily Anna Robinson (née Jones). When Lennox was…...
Rolleston, Thomas William Hazen (T. W.)
Rolleston, Thomas William Hazen (T. W.) (1857–1920), poet, critic and journalist, was born 1 May 1857 at Glasshouse, near Shinrone, King's County (Offaly), youngest child among three sons and a daughter of Charles Rolleston-Spunner (d. 1887), barrister and county court judge for…...
Rowan, Anne Margaret
Rowan, Anne Margaret (1832–1913), novelist, historian, and political activist, was born 21 November 1832 in Tralee, Co. Kerry, to Arthur Blennerhasset Rowan (qv), Church of Ireland clergyman and antiquarian, and his wife…...
Savage, Marmion Wilme
Savage, Marmion Wilme (1803–72), novelist and journalist, was born 22 February 1803 in Dublin, the only child of Revd Henry Savage and Sarah Savage (née Bewley). He grew up in his father's parish in Ardkeen, Co. Down. Awarded a BA in classics…...
Share, Bernard Vivian
Share, Bernard Vivian (1930–2013), writer and editor, was born on 31 May 1930 in London to Irish parents Frederick Share, a civil servant, and May Share, who had emigrated there from Dublin. He lived in England until he was seventeen, attending school in Pinner, Middlesex, before moving…...
Sheares, Henry
Sheares, Henry (1728–75), banker, parliamentarian, and essayist, was born probably in October 1728, one of three sons of Henry Sheares (d. 1750?) of Goldenbush, near Inishannon, Co. Cork, and his wife Mary, daughter of John Bayley of Castlemore, Co. Cork. At sixteen he entered…...
Shepherd, Samuel
Shepherd, Samuel (1701/2–1785), Church of Ireland minister and poet, was born in Limerick, son of John Shepherd, archdeacon of the diocese. Having obtained his early education from Mr Cashin of Limerick, Samuel entered TCD (April 1720…...
Sheridan, Frances (née Chamberlaine)
Sheridan, Frances (née Chamberlaine) (1724–66), writer, was born in Dublin, the youngest child among three sons and two daughters of Philip Chamberlaine , a Church of Ireland clergyman who was rector of St Nicholas Without, and Anastasia Chamberlaine (née Whyte), his English-born…...
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751–1816), playwright and politician, was born in September or October 1751 at 12 Dorset Street, Dublin, the third child of Thomas Sheridan (qv), actor and orthoepist, and his wife,…...
Sheridan, Thomas
Sheridan, Thomas (1687–1738), schoolmaster, poet, essayist, and wit, was born in Co. Cavan. His father, Patrick, may have been a farmer. Nothing certain is known of Sheridan's life before he entered TCD in 1707, aged 20, except that he…...
Shirley, James
Shirley, James (1596–1666), playwright, was baptised 7 September 1596 at St Mary Woolchurch, London, eldest child of James Shirley, draper, and his wife Catherine. From October 1608 he attended Merchant Taylors’ School before leaving in about the summer of 1612 to work for the…...
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…...
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…...