Barry, Billie (Lillian)
Barry, Billie (Lillian) (1921–2014), performer and stage school founder, was born on 27 January 1921 in Drumcondra, Dublin, the youngest of fifteen children to John Clarke-Barry, orchestra leader and musician, and his wife Anne (née Hughes), an amateur operatic singer. The family were…...
Bellamy, George Anne
Bellamy, George Anne (1731?–1788), actress, was born in Fingal, Co. Dublin, illegitimate daughter of James O'Hara (qv), 2nd baron of Tyrawley, then British ambassador to Lisbon, and a Miss Seal, an actress of quaker extraction from Kent. Her mother married a…...
Bernelle, Agnes
Bernelle, Agnes (1923–99), singer and actress, was born Agnes Elizabeth Bernauer on 7 March 1923 in Berlin, Germany, daughter of Rudolph Bernauer (1880–1953), a Jewish-Hungarian actor, playwright, librettist, and theatrical director and impresario, and his second wife, Emmy (née Erb) (b…...
Boylan, Patricia
This is a co-subject for the entry on Boylan, Henry Joseph. View the original entry....
Burke, Honora
Burke, Honora (1674–1698), was the youngest daughter of William Burke (qv), 7th earl of Clanricarde, and his second wife, Helen, daughter of Donough MacCarthy (qv), 1st earl of Clancarty…...
Bushell, Ellen Sarah ('Nellie')
Bushell, Ellen Sarah (‘Nellie’) (1884–1948), silk weaver, usher and activist, was born on 23 January 1884 at 57 Francis Street, Dublin, to Edward Bushell (d. 1904), a silk weaver, and his wife Ellen (née Walshe). Bushell’s mother was dead by 1901 and Edward had…...
Colgan, Eileen
Colgan, Eileen (1934–2014), actor, was born on 2 January 1934 in Dublin to Charles Colgan, a cabinet maker, and his wife Eileen (née McNamara). She was one of five children (three boys and two girls) and grew up on Russell Street on the north side of the city. Her father and an elder…...
Courtenay, Ellen
Courtenay, Ellen (1802–c.1837), accuser of Daniel O'Connell (qv), was born in Co. Cork, daughter of a native of the county. In 1817, at the age of 15, she moved to Dublin, and the catholic bishop of Cork,…...
Crowe, Eileen (Alice Izabella)
Crowe, Eileen (Alice Izabella) (1899–1978), actress, was born 2 March 1899 at 1 Carlingford Terrace, Drumcondra, Dublin, daughter of Moses Crowe, grocer, and Theresa Crowe (née Eglinton). From an early age she showed an interest in the theatre, and regularly attended productions…...
Delany, Maureen
Delany, Maureen (c.1888–1961), actress, was born in Kilkenny, daughter of Dr Barry Delany, medical officer to the Kilkenny mental home, and his Kerry-born wife (née Nagle). Her father died when she was three months old. She was educated at the Dominican College in Galway…...
Fitzgibbon, Theodora
Fitzgibbon, Theodora (1916–91), cookery expert and writer, was born Joan Eileen Rosling on 21 October 1916 in London, the only child of Adam Rosling, motor engineer with the Royal Naval Air Service, and Alice Winifred Rosling (née Hodgkins). Her parents were divorced soon after…...
Flanagan, Pauline
Flanagan, Pauline (1925–2003), actress, was born 29 June 1925 in Sligo town, youngest child of Patrick J. Flanagan and his wife Elizabeth (née McLynn). Her paternal family, originally from Co. Fermanagh, were driven out by anti‐catholic pogroms and resettled in Sligo, where her parents…...
Gardiner, Marguerite (Margaret)
Gardiner, Marguerite (Margaret) (1789–1849), countess of Blessington , writer, journalist, and society hostess, was born 1 September 1789 at Knockbrit, Co. Tipperary, the second daughter and fourth child of Edmund Power and his wife Ellen (née Sheehy), both from well-established…...
Gibson, Chloe
Gibson, Chloe (1899–1995), theatre and television director, was born 18 May 1899 in Torquay, Devon, England, daughter of Walter Ernest Cawdle and Lotte Cawdle (née Saunders). She was educated at Lauriston Hall, Torquay. After studying painting briefly, she trained in speech and drama…...
Hart, Josephine
Hart, Josephine (1942–2011), writer, theatrical producer and poetry promoter, was born on 1 March 1942 in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, the eldest of five children of Dermot Hart and his wife Sheila (née Donoghue). Her father had been a commercial traveller and a lorry driver, until…...
Hoey, Moira
Hoey, Moira (1922–2010), actress, was born on 13 March 1922 in Cork city, the only daughter of two children of James Deady (d. 1952), a draper's assistant (described as a retired merchant at his death), and his wife Mary 'Cissie' (née Hickey). Christened Mary Frances, she used Moira…...
Kean, Marie (Ní Catháin, Máire)
Kean, Marie (Ní Catháin, Máire) (1922–93), actress, was born 27 June 1922 in Rush, Co. Dublin, the daughter of John Kean, a ship's captain, and Margaret Kean (née Foley). Her interest in the theatre developed at an early age, when she attended shows given by travelling companies who…...
Kiernan, Catherine Brigid (‘Kitty’)
Kiernan, Catherine Brigid (‘Kitty’) (1893–1945), hotelier, and fiancée of Michael Collins (qv), was born 26 January 1893 in Granard, Co. Longford, fifth child and fourth daughter among six daughters and one son of Peter Kiernan, a…...
Leavy, (Mary) Patricia ('Pat') (née Judge)
Leavy, (Mary) Patricia ('Pat') (née Judge) (1936–2003), actress, was born on 27 July 1936 in a nursing home at 12 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin, daughter of Edmund Judge, a commercial traveller in drapery, of The Downes, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, who died in a car accident on 22 December…...
Lovett, Ann
Lovett, Ann (1968–84), schoolgirl, was born in Cobh, Co. Cork, on 6 April 1968, the seventh of nine children (three girls and six boys) of Diarmuid Lovett (d. 1987), builder and publican, and his wife Patricia (née MacNamee, d. 2015). EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION The Lovett family moved…...
Lynch, Eliza Alicia
Lynch, Eliza Alicia (1834–86), mistress of Francisco Solano Lopez (dictator of Paraguay, 1862–70), was born in Charleville, Co. Cork, the eldest of at least three children of John Lynch, MD, AB, and his wife, Jane Elizabeth, second daughter of…...
Manahan, Anna (Maria)
Manahan, Anna (Maria) (1924–2009), actress, was born on 18 October 1924 in Waterford city, third child in a family of three sons and three daughters of Patrick Manahan (d. 1967) and Mary Manahan (née Barry). Her father was a clerk in the margarine manufacturing business of W. and C.…...
McAvin, Josie (Josephine)
McAvin, Josie (Josephine) (1919–2005) theatrical stage manager, and set decorator in cinema and theatre, was born 23 April 1919 in Dublin, one of three daughters and three sons of John McAvin (d. 1938), cattle exporter, and his wife Mollie. Her father was the last serving high…...
McConville, Jean
McConville, Jean (1935–72), murder victim, was born at Avoniel, east Belfast, in 1935, the daughter of Thomas Murray, shipyard worker, and his wife, May. After a basic education she entered domestic service. In 1952 she married Arthur McConville, a catholic soldier from west Belfast and…...
McKenna, Siobhán
McKenna, Siobhán (1922–86), actor and theatre director, was born 24 May 1922 at 28 St James's Park, off the Falls Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, the second daughter of Margaret (Gretta) O'Reilly from Loch Gamhna, Co. Longford, and her husband, Eoghan McKenna (b. Millstreet, Co. Cork, 1892)…...