Bender, Philipp Philip Phineas
Bender, Philipp Philip Phineas (c.1831–1901), Jewish minister and teacher, was born in Germany, and moved (c.1851) to Hull, England, where he was appointed minister to the Jewish community. He settled (1862) in Dublin and was appointed (1863–81) a preacher at…...
Blomfield, Sara Louisa
Blomfield, Sara Louisa , Lady (1859–1939), Bahá'í pioneer and humanitarian, was born in Knockanevin, Borrisoleigh, near Thurles, Co. Tipperary, the daughter of Matthew (Matthias) John Ryan and his wife Emily (née Crowe). Religious tension between her catholic father and anglo-…...
Blond, Marcus Joseph
Blond, Marcus Joseph (c.1865–1905), president of the Limerick Jewish community, was a native of Wexna, Lithuania. Ordained a rabbi in his teens, he settled (1880s) in Limerick city, where he established a grocery business. He appears in the 1901 census as ‘Marcus Jacob Blonde’…...
Bradlaw, Robert
Bradlaw, Robert (c.1839–1904), Jewish community leader, was born in Kovno, Russia. By profession an oculist, he lived in England before settling in Dublin, where he became a leading lay representative of the Jewish immigrants. Responsive to their particular needs, he…...
Cohen, Isaac
Cohen, Isaac (1914–2007), chief rabbi of the Republic of Ireland (1959–79), was born 26 July 1914 in Llanelli, Wales, one of three children born to shopkeeper parents of Lithuanian birth. Growing up amongst a community of fifty or so orthodox Jewish families, Cohen retained rich…...
Cohen, Joseph Wolfe
Cohen, Joseph Wolfe (1780–1869), president of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation, was born September 1780 in Poznan, Poland (soon to become a Prussian possession as ‘Posen’). After living in Birmingham, he settled in Dublin c.1819. One of the principal founders of the revived…...
Crofton, Sir John Wenman
Crofton, Sir John Wenman (1912–2009), physician, scientist and public health campaigner, was born on 27 March 1912 at the family home, 55 Merrion Square South, Dublin, the only son (between two sisters) of William Mervyn Crofton, physician and bacteriologist, and his wife Mary…...
Devlin, Joseph Francis (‘Frank’)
Devlin, Joseph Francis (‘Frank’) (1900–88), badminton player, was born 19 January 1900 at 11 Wellington Place, Dublin, to Joseph Edmund Devlin, government official, and Edith Devlin (née Jeneken). He was the only child in a mixed-denomination marriage and as a result there were…...
Dhammaloka (Carroll, Laurence)
Dhammaloka (Carroll, Laurence) (b. c.1856), Buddhist monk in Burma (Myanmar), was probably born in 1856 in south Co. Dublin, son of a grocer in Booterstown. All that is known of his life prior to his emergence as a public figure in colonial Burma in 1900 derives from his own…...
Dillon, Michael
Dillon, Michael (1915–62), physician, writer, Buddhist novice-monk and the first person known to surgically transition from female to male, was born Laura Maud Dillon on 1 May 1915 in Ladbroke Grove, London, England. Dillon was the second child of Robert Arthur Dillon (1865–1925),…...
Dunlop, Daniel Nicol
Dunlop, Daniel Nicol (1868–1935), businessman and esotericist, was born 28 December 1868 in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, only child of Alexander Dunlop, described variously as an architect or builder, and Catherine Dunlop (née Nicol) (1847–73). His father, a stern authoritarian, was…...
Gordon, Maurice Leonard (‘Maurie’)
Gordon, Maurice Leonard (‘Maurie’) (1910–90), sports administrator, businessman, and community activist, was born 10 January 1910 in Leeds, England, only son and elder of two children of Joseph Gordon (originally Seltzer), textile worker from Russia, and Bessie Gordon (née Bellow…...
Herzog, Isaac (Yitzak) Halevi
Herzog, Isaac (Yitzak) Halevi (1888–1959), first chief rabbi of the Irish Free State, was born at Lomza, Poland, the only son of Rabbi Joel Herzog, rabbi of the Polish Jewish community in Paris, and Miriam Liba Herzog (née Cirowitz). With an initial education provided by his father, by…...
Houlihan, Con
Houlihan, Con (1925–2012), sportswriter, was born on 6 December 1925 in Reineen, near Castleisland, Co. Kerry, the middle child among two boys and a girl of Michael Houlihan and his wife Ellen ('Nell') (née Cronin). His parents farmed a small holding (about five acres of arable land),…...
Jenkinson, David Stewart
Jenkinson, David Stewart (1928–2011), soil scientist, was born on 25 February 1928 in Hollywood Hospital, Los Angeles, California, USA, the eldest of three sons of Hugh McLoughlin Jenkinson, investor and businessman, and his wife Isabel Frances (née Glass). His father, an Irish…...
Keating, Justin Pascal
Keating, Justin Pascal (1930–2009), politician, veterinarian and television presenter, was born 7 January 1930 in a nursing home at 37 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin, younger of two sons of Seán Keating (qv), artist, and…...
Lánczos, Cornelius
Lánczos, Cornelius (Kornél) (1893–1974), theoretical physicist, was born 2 February 1893 in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, eldest of five children of Carolus Löwy, lawyer, and Adél Hahn. During the early 1900s the family changed their name to Lánczos, a Hungarian form of the Jewish name Löwy…...
Moriarty, John Stephen
Moriarty, John Stephen (1938–2007), philosopher and shaman, was born 2 February 1938 at Moyvane, near Listowel, Co. Kerry, fourth of six children (two sons and four daughters) of James Moriarty, smallholder and native speaker of Irish (with eleven cows and 'thirty-two acres of bad,…...
O'Halloran, Maura Eileen
O'Halloran, Maura Eileen (1955–82), Zen master, was born 24 May 1955 in Boston, Mass., USA, eldest among one son and five daughters of Fionan Finbarr O'Halloran, civil engineer from Tralee, Co. Kerry, and Ruth O'Halloran (née Libbey), teacher, from Maine, USA. She was educated at Loreto…...
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…...
Solomons, Bethel Albert Herbert
Solomons, Bethel Albert Herbert (1885–1965), gynaecologist and rugby player, was born 27 February 1885 at 32 Waterloo Road, Dublin, second son and third child of Maurice Elias Solomons (d. 1922), optician and honorary consul for the Austro–Hungarian empire in Ireland, and Rosa Jane…...
Synge, John Lighton
Synge, John Lighton (1897–1995), mathematician and theoretical physicist, was born 23 March 1897 in Dublin, youngest among one daughter and three sons of Edward Synge (1859–1939), then land agent in Kingscourt, Co. Cavan, and his wife Ellen Frances (1861–1935), daughter of the…...
Táherzadeh-Málmírí, Adib
Táherzadeh-Málmírí, Adib (1921–2000), historian of the Bahá’í Faith, was born 29 April 1921 in Yazd, Iran, youngest of two surviving sons of the four sons and four daughters (three of whom had been killed during a massacre of Bahá’ís) of Hájí Muhammad-Táhir-i-Málmírí (c.…...
Toland, John
Toland, John (1670–1722), freethinker and polemical writer, was probably born in Inishowen, Co. Donegal, on 30 November 1670. Reputed to be the illegitimate son of a catholic priest, Toland may have been baptised ‘Joannes Eugenius’, which he later altered to a pen name, ‘Janus Junius’.…...
Townshend, George
Townshend, George (1876–1957), clergyman, Bahá'i convert, scholar, and writer, was born 14 June 1876 at Hatley, 10 Burlington Rd, Dublin, eldest of two sons and five daughters of Charles Uniacke Townshend (1828–1907), JP and land agent, of 15…...