The Dictionary of Irish Biography has published forty-one new entries, with a mixture of contemporary figures and ‘missing persons’ – interesting older figures who have come to light thanks to recent scholarship.
Among the high-profile contemporary figures added are writer Brian Friel (1929–2015), broadcasters Terry Wogan (1938–2016) and Bill O'Herlihy (1938–2015), and founder of the Irish Hospice Foundation, Mary Redmond (1950–2015).
The sixteen newly added 'missing persons' include Dorothea Heron (1896–1960), the first woman to be admitted as a solicitor in Ireland, alongside charismatic theatre director and actor Daisy Bannard Cogley (1884–1965), trans civil war soldier, Albert Cashier (1843–1915), Clare-born American mining magnate James A. Murray (1840–1921), and the enigmatic quack doctor and politician, Ethens de Tomanzie (1841–86).
Fourteen of the sixteen ‘missing person’ biographies were supplied by new contributors to the DIB, and our profound thanks goes to them for their considerable efforts.
Other newly published entries include those on folk singer and member of The Dubliners, Jim McCann (1944–2015); legendary Kilkenny hurling coach, Fr Tommy Maher (1922–2015); Glenroe creator, Wesley Burrowes (1930–2015); lawyer and politician, Desmond Boal (1928–2015); and the enormously successful, and extravagant, pharmaceuticals pioneer Edward Enda Haughey (1944–2014).
See our ‘New entries’ page, for a full list of the newly added biographies.