Hammond, David Andrew ('Davy')
Hammond, David Andrew ('Davy') (1928–2008), singer, folklorist, television producer and documentary maker, was born on 5 December 1928 in Miss Kells's nursing home on the Castlereagh Road in Belfast, the son of Leslie Hammond, a tram driver, and his wife Annie (née Lamont). His parents…...
Handel, George Frederick
Handel, George Frederick (1685–1759), composer, was born 23 February 1685 in Halle, the son of Georg Händel (1622–97), a barber-surgeon to the court of the duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. From c.1692–3 the young Georg Friederich received a thorough musical education (keyboard…...
Hanna, Geordie
This is a co-subject for the entry on O'Neill (née Hanna), Sarah Ann. View the original entry....
Hardebeck, Carl Gilbert
Hardebeck, Carl Gilbert (1869–1945), collector and arranger of traditional songs, teacher of music, and composer, was born 10 December 1869 in Clerkenwell, London, son of Carl Joseph Hardebeck, an expatriate German and a successful jeweller, and Catherine Hardebeck (née Jones), who was…...
Harrison, Frank Llewelyn
Harrison, Frank Llewelyn (1905–87), musicologist, organist, and composer, was born 29 September 1905 in Dublin, the second son of Alfred Francis and Florence May Harrison. He became a chorister at St Patrick's cathedral in 1912, occasionally playing the organ for cathedral…...
Harte, Francis ('Frank')
Harte, Francis ('Frank') (1933–2005), architect, lecturer, singer, and collector of traditional songs, was born 14 May 1933 in Dublin. His father, Peter Harte (d. 1977), was originally from a farm in Co. Sligo, but moved to Dublin and bought a pub, The Tap, in Chapelizod, then still…...
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…...
Hay, Edward Norman
Hay, Edward Norman (1889–1943), composer, organist and critic, was born 19 April 1889 in Faversham, Kent, the only child of parents from Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, his father a customs and excise officer on a temporary posting. When his mother died some six weeks after the birth,…...
Hayes, Catherine
Hayes, Catherine (1818–61), soprano, was born 25 October 1818 at 4 Patrick St., Limerick, younger of two daughters of Arthur W. Hayes, a bandmaster with the local militia, and Mary Hayes (née Carroll) who worked in the household of the earl of Limerick. The Rev. Edmund Knox, the…...
Hayward, (Harold) Richard
Hayward, (Harold) Richard (1892–1964), author and singer, was born 25 October 1892, one among five sons and a daughter of Walter Scott Hayward and Louise Ivy Hayward. The family was English, but settled in Larne, Co. Antrim, and Richard attended Larne grammar school. After his marriage…...
Heeney, Patrick
This is a co-subject for the entry on Kearney, Peadar. View the original entry....
Hempson (O'Hempsy), Denis
Hempson (O'Hempsy), Denis (1695?–1807), harpist, was born at Braigmore, near Garvagh in the parish of Aghadowey, Co. Londonderry, one of three children born to Brian ‘Darrogher’ (‘Livid’) O'Hempsy, a substantial farmer; his mother was from the townland of Woodtown nearby. An attack…...
Hennessy, Christie
Hennessy, Christie (1945–2007), singer and songwriter, was born Edward Christopher Ross on 19 November 1945, in Tralee, Co. Kerry, the youngest of nine children (four boys and five girls) of James Ross, an electrician, and his wife Julia (née Griffin). They lived in a two-bedroom house…...
Henry, Samuel (‘Sam’)
Henry, Samuel (‘Sam’) (1878–1952), folk-song collector, was born in Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, youngest among five sons of William Henry and Mary Henry (née Biggart). He had two sisters; one of his brothers became town clerk of Coleraine. Educated locally, he entered the customs…...
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…...
Hickey, Ted (Edward Vincent)
Hickey, Ted (Edward Vincent) (1940–2005), arts administrator and traditional music enthusiast, was born 4 March 1940 in Wicklow town. He was educated at the Institute for Science and Technology in Kevin Street, Dublin; the London School of Film Technique; and…...
Hodnett, George Desmond ('Hoddy')
Hodnett, George Desmond ('Hoddy') (1918–90), musician, journalist and bohemian, was born 25 February 1918 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, son of George Pope Hodnett (1890–1982), soldier, and Lauré Hodnett (née Faschnacht), a native of Switzerland; he had at least one sibling, a brother…...
Holmes, Augusta Mary Anne
Holmes, Augusta Mary Anne (1847–1903), composer, was born 16 December 1847 in Paris of Irish parents, Captain Dalkieth Holmes, who had settled in Paris in 1820, and his wife, Augusta, née Shearer (d. 1857). Her mother published two pieces of prose: The law of Rouen, a…...
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…...
Hughes, Anthony George ('Tony')
Hughes, Anthony George ('Tony') (1928–2007), musician and university professor, was born 6 July 1928, in south Dublin, the son of George Hughes, an optical technician, and his wife Lilian (née Jones); he had three younger sisters. Brought up in Donore Road, off the South Circular…...
Hughes, Herbert
Hughes, Herbert (1882–1937), musician, critic, and folksong arranger, was born 16 March 1882 at 23 Vicinage Park, Belfast, son of Frederick Patrick Hughes, commercial traveller (later senior partner in Hughes, Dickson & Co, flour millers), and Mary Hughes (née McClean). Both…...
Hynes, (Oliver) Jerome (Morley)
Hynes, (Oliver) Jerome (Morley) (1959–2005), theatre and festival manager, and arts administrator, was born 30 September 1959 at St John of God nursing home, Ballymote, Co. Sligo, one of two sons and two daughters of Oliver P. Hynes (c.1920–2004), vocational teacher, and his…...
Ireland (Hutcheson), Francis
Ireland (Hutcheson), Francis (1721–84), composer, was born in Dublin 13 August 1721, the son of Francis Hutcheson (d. 1746), a presbyterian minister who ran a private school in Dublin between about 1716 and 1730 before serving as professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow University (1730…...
Johnstone, John Henry
Johnstone, John Henry (1749–1828), actor and singer, was born 1 August 1749 in Co. Kilkenny, son of a quartermaster in an Irish regiment of horse; there are few details about the rest of his family. His father died when he was a child and he was supported by his mother, who sold…...