Adair, Sir Robert Alexander Shafto
Adair, Sir Robert Alexander Shafto (1811–86), 2nd baronet, Baron Waveney, MP and author, was born 25 August 1811, elder son of Sir Robert Shafto Adair (1st baronet, of Flixton Hall, Suffolk, and Ballymena, Co. Antrim) and Elizabeth Adair (née Strode), and educated at Harrow (1823–8).…...
Balfe, John Donnellan
Balfe, John Donnellan (1816–80), politician, journalist, and British government spy, was born in Co. Meath, son of James Balfe, gentleman, and Sara Balfe (née Sutherland). He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare, and had a brief career in the British army, joining…...
Barry, Richard
Barry, Richard (1769–93), 7th earl of Barrymore , spendthrift, was born in London on 14 August 1769 and succeeded his father, Richard, to the Irish earldom of Barrymore just before his fourth birthday. In his youth he became excessively interested in racehorses, gambling,…...
Bastable, Charles Francis
Bastable, Charles Francis (1855–1945), economist and academic, was born in Charleville, Co. Cork, the only son of the Rev. Robert Bastable, rector of Knock Temple and Kilbolane, and his wife Louisa, daughter of a Dr Little of Sligo. Educated at Fermoy College and…...
Behan, Brian Finbar Oliver Plunkett
Behan, Brian Finbar Oliver Plunkett (1926–2002), writer, radical, and bohemian, was born Brian Desmond Behan (the name appearing on the birth certificate) on 10 November 1926 in the Rotunda hospital, Dublin, while the family were residing at 14 Russell St., the third of five children of…...
Colbert, John Patrick
Colbert, John Patrick (1898–1975), public servant and economist, was born 12 February 1898, the son of William Colbert JP, a farmer of Templeathea, Co. Limerick, and Norah Colbert (née Danaher). Educated at Rockwell College, near Cashel,…...
Conefrey, Peter
Conefrey, Peter (1880–1939), catholic priest and social critic, was born 9 June 1880 in Mohill, Co. Leitrim, son of James Conefrey, publican, and his wife Mary McGivney. There were many priests on both sides of the family. His uncle, Fr Thomas Conefrey, parish priest of Drumlish,…...
Conniffe, Denis
Conniffe, Denis (1942–2011), economist, was born on 10 January 1942 in Dublin, the only child of Patrick Conniffe, of Dublin, who had a career in law, and his wife Brigid (née Toland), of Derry. The family lived in Whitehall on the north side of the city and he attended the School of…...
Cotter (alias O'Brien), Patrick
Cotter (alias O'Brien), Patrick (1760/61–1806), giant and showman, was born at Belgooly, near Kinsale, Co. Cork. His parents were farmers; while no details of his father are available, his mother was still alive at the time of his death and is named in his will as Margaret Cotter…...
Coyne, William Patrick
Coyne, William Patrick (1866–1904), statistician, was born 18 May 1866 at Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, the second son of a merchant, Edward Coyne, and his wife, Maria (née Hayes). He was educated at St Stanislaus’ College, Tullabeg, and St Ignatius’ College, Temple Street, Dublin, from…...
Devereux (D'Evereux, Devereaux), John
Devereux (D'Evereux, Devereaux), John (1778?–1860), soldier and adventurer, was born in Co. Wexford, son of a prominent catholic landowner, probably William Devereux of Taghmon, Co. Wexford. He and his father may have been United Irishmen: they certainly took part in the 1798…...
Duff, Charles St Lawrence
Duff, Charles St Lawrence (1894–1966) author, barrister and linguist, was born on 7 April 1894 in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, the youngest of ten children to grow to adulthood of John Duff, secretary of the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway, and his wife Anne Marie Duff (…...
Ferris, Richard
Ferris, Richard (1754–1828), priest and adventurer, was born 10 February 1754 at Ballymalis, near Killarney, Co. Kerry, youngest among four sons of Daniel Ferris, tenant farmer; his mother was a Hassett, apparently a protestant. His brothers emigrated to France, where one, Edward…...
Finaghty, James
Finaghty, James (1614–p.1671), catholic priest and faith healer, was attached to the diocese of Elphin. During the confederate period in the 1640s, he was a supporter of the papal nuncio, Rinuccini (qv). Utilising the…...
FitzGerald, Alexis James Oliver
FitzGerald, Alexis James Oliver (1916–85), solicitor and economist, was born 4 September 1916, the fourth child of Alexis FitzGerald and his wife, Elizabeth O'Halloran. He was born, as he would later say himself, ‘under the clock’ in the Waterford Mental Hospital, where his father was…...
Fitzgerald, George Robert
Fitzgerald, George Robert (c.1746–1786), duellist, was born in Turlough, Co. Mayo, elder son of George Fitzgerald, landowner, and his wife, Lady Mary Fitzgerald, daughter of John, Lord Hervey. His mother's brother was …...
French, (William) Percy
French, (William) Percy (1854–1920), songwriter, humourist, entertainer, and painter, was born 1 May 1854 in Cloonyquin House, parish of Tulsk, Co. Roscommon, second son and third child among four sons and five daughters of Christopher French (1821–97), landowner, and Susan Emma French…...
Garzia (Garcia), John
Garzia (Garcia), John (d. p.1723), priest-catcher, was almost certainly born in Spain. He was the most notorious of a profession – which included Edward Tyrell (qv) – active in the early eighteenth century, who, in return…...
Healy, James
Healy, James (1824–94), priest and raconteur, was born 15 December 1824 in Francis St., Dublin, son of John Healy, provision merchant, and his first wife, Mary (née Meyler), who was from Co. Wexford. There were twenty-three children in the family. James was to inherit his father's…...
Henchy, Patrick
Henchy, Patrick (1913–2001), librarian and scholar, was born 5 May 1913 in Corofin, Co. Clare, fifth of seven children (four girls and three boys) of Patrick Henchy, merchant of Corofin, and his wife Margaret (née O'Grady). Having received his primary education locally, he attended St…...
Higgins, Francis (‘Sham Squire’)
Higgins, Francis (‘Sham Squire’) (1745?–1802), adventurer, was born in Dublin, one of the large family of Patrick Higgins, an attorney's clerk, and his wife, Mary, who were said to have moved from Downpatrick, Co. Down. Patrick Higgins may have been the Patrick Higgins of Dublin…...
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,…...
Jocelyn, Percy
Jocelyn, Percy (1764–1843), disgraced bishop, was born 29 November 1764, third of four sons of Robert, 1st earl of Roden (qv), and his wife Anne, née Hamilton. Educated at TCD, he graduated…...
Kent, Edmond
Kent, Edmond (1915–99), Jesuit priest and economist, was born 9 June 1915 at 15 Rostrevor Terrace, Rathgar, Dublin, son of Pierce Kent, civil servant and later commissioner of the board of works, and Mary Catherine Kent (née Connolly). Educated at Clongowes Wood College, Kildare,…...
Lamb, John George Dalkeith ('Keith')
Lamb, John George Dalkeith ('Keith') (1919–2011), horticultural scientist and plantsman, was born on 19 August 1919 in Dublin, the younger son of John Lamb, who had been a doctor in the British army, and his wife Constance (née Johnston). Constance's father, also a doctor, was a…...