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).…...
Aylmer, Matthew
Aylmer, Matthew (c.1650–1720), 1st Baron Aylmer of Balrath , admiral, and commander-in-chief of the fleet, was second child and second son among three sons and one daughter of Christopher Aylmer (d. 1671), 1st baronet, of Balrath, Co. Meath, and his wife Margaret, third…...
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…...
Beresford, Lord Charles William de la Poer
Beresford, Lord Charles William de la Poer (1846–1919), admiral and MP, was born 10 February 1846 in Baronstown, Dundalk, Co. Louth, second son of the Rev. John de la Poer Beresford (1814–66), 4th marquis of Waterford, and Christiana Beresford (1820–1905; née Leslie). He was…...
Bermingham, William (‘Willie’) Patrick
Bermingham, William (‘Willie’) Patrick (1942–90), founder of ALONE, was born 29 March 1942 in Inchicore, Dublin, third among seven children of William Bermingham, bellman on a fuel cart, and Mary Bermingham (née Dalgarno). He was educated at St Michael's School, Inchicore, and…...
Clark, Wallace
Clark, Wallace (1926–2011), yachtsman, writer and businessman, was born in Upperlands, Co. Derry, on 20 November 1926, one of three children, two boys and a girl, of Harry Francis Clark, of Rockwood in Upperlands, and his wife Sybil Emily (née Stuart). His father was a director and…...
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…...
Crozier, Maurna
Crozier, (Rose Mary) Maurna (1942–2015), social anthropologist, was born in Belfast on 22 January 1942, the only surviving child of Robert Frizzell, the first general manager of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB), and his wife Molly (née Rands), a rosarian and the daughter of…...
Cusack, Margaret Anna (‘The nun of Kenmare’)
Cusack, Margaret Anna (‘The nun of Kenmare’) (1829–99), nun and author, was born 6 May 1829 at Coolock, Co. Dublin, the elder of two children of Dr Samuel Cusack and his wife, Sarah (née Stoney). Early life and conversion to catholicism She was educated privately, learning informally…...
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 (…...
Elmes, Mary
Elmes, Mary (1908–2002), humanitarian worker 'righteous among the nations', was born Marie Elizabeth Jean Elmes on 5 May 1908, at Culgreine, 120 Blackrock Road, Ballintemple, Cork, the home of her parents, Edward Thomas Elmes, a pharmacist, and his wife Elizabeth Octavia (née Waters…...
Farran, George Philip
Farran, George Philip (1876–1949), marine taxonomist and fisheries scientist, was born 21 November 1876 at Knocklyon House, Templeogue, Co. Dublin, eldest among two sons and two daughters of Edmond Chomley Farran, a man of private income, of Belcamp Park, Raheny, Co. Dublin, and…...
Green, William Spotswood
Green, William Spotswood (1847–1919), marine scientist, was born 10 September 1847 in Youghal, Co. Cork, the only son and eldest of six children of Charles Green, JP, merchant of Youghal, and his wife Catherine Frances, daughter of Walter…...
Halliday, Fred (Simon Frederick Peter)
Halliday, Fred (Simon Frederick Peter) (1946–2009), academic, writer and public intellectual, was born on 22 February 1946 in Dublin, the youngest of three sons of Arthur Halliday, a quaker shoe manufacturer, and Margaret Mary 'Rita' Halliday (née Finigan), of Dundalk. He was educated…...
Hobson, William
Hobson, William (1793–1842), naval officer and first governor of New Zealand, was born 26 September 1793 in Newtown Lodge, Waterford city, third among five sons of Samuel Hobson, assistant barrister for Co. Cork, and his wife Martha Jones, who was a member of a family that had…...
Hull, Sir William
Hull, Sir William (c.1573–1643), pirate collaborator and settler, was one of two surviving sons and five daughters of Henry Hull, a merchant and ship owner of Exeter, and his wife Julianna (née Spurway). Henry maintained a family tradition by serving as mayor of Exeter in 1605…...
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,…...
Ireland, John Evan de Courcy
Ireland, John Evan de Courcy (1911–2006), socialist, activist, teacher, and maritime historian, was born 19 October 1911 in Lucknow, India, only child of De Courcy Ireland (1873–1915), a British army major of Irish ancestry, and his English-born wife Gabrielle (née Byron). …...
King, William Donald Aelian ('Bill')
King, William Donald Aelian ('Bill') (1910–2012), submarine captain and yachtsman, was born on 23 June 1910 in Church Avenue, Farnborough, Hampshire, the only son of four children of William King, army officer, originally from Co. Galway, and his wife Georgina Marie (née Mackenzie…...
Lawson, James Anthony
Lawson, James Anthony (1817–87), judge and economist, was born 10 February 1817, the eldest son of James Lawson of Waterford and his wife Mary Anthony. After initial education in Waterford, he entered TCD in October 1833, became a…...
Lennon, Peter Gerard
Lennon, Peter Gerard (1930–2011), journalist, documentary film-maker and social critic, was born on 28 February 1930 at 30 North Frederick Street, Dublin, the eldest of three sons of Peter Joseph Lennon and his wife Delia (née Fenton). His mother was a former post office worker…...
Leslie, Thomas Edward Cliffe
Leslie, Thomas Edward Cliffe (1825–82), political economist, was born 21 June 1825 in Co. Wexford, second son of the Rev. Edward Leslie and Margaret Leslie (née Higginson), who had also at least five daughters. His father was a member of the Leslie family of Glaslough, and a half-…...
Lewis, Sir George Cornewall
Lewis, Sir George Cornewall (1806–63), politician, author, and assistant commissioner of the poor law in Ireland, was born 21 April 1806 in London, elder son of Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis (1780–1855), later MP for Beaumaris (1812–26) and Ennis (1826–8), commissioner for Irish…...
Longfield, Mountifort
Longfield, Mountifort (1802–84), economist and lawyer, was second son of the Rev. Mountifort Longfield (d. 1850), JP and vicar of Desert Serges, Co. Cork, of the Anglo-Irish Longfield family of Longueville, near Mallow, Co. Cork, and his…...
Mason, William Shaw
Mason, William Shaw (c.1774–1853), administrator and statistician, was born in 1774 or 1775 in Dublin, where his father, Henry Mason, was a tax official; nothing is known of his mother. It is not known if he was related to the Monck Masons, his contemporaries. He was…...