The patriotic cellist who refused to play Rule, Britannia!
Maureen O’Carroll, daughter of 1916 Rising activists, went on to play with Frank Sinatra
Nancy Cunard, the interwar poet and rebel descended from Robert Emmet’s family
The writer worked with Beckett and Joyce, and fought against racism
The bard from Ballymena who got too homesick in Canada
David Herbison survived shipwreck en route to North America, but only lasted weeks before he decided to return
The Dublin-born journalist who became a foreign correspondent in Imperial Russia
EJ Dillon counted Tolstoy and Dostoevsky among his personal aquaintances
‘Mother Mooney’, the Mayo woman who campaigned for justice for her wronged son
Mary Mooney became an icon in a campaign for US political prisoners in the early 1930s
The Irish-American who led the last invasion of Britain
Colonel William Tate commanded the French military force ‘La Legion Noire’, that led to the Battle of Fishguard in 1797
The Dublin inventor who was an early pioneer of high speed photography
Lucien Bull went to Belvedere College before emigrating to Paris to study zoology, botany and geology
The Irishman who was one of Britain’s most prominent spies
James Talbot, from Malahide, coordinated a spy network that stretched from St Petersburg to Lisbon
The Tipperary man who fell in love while fighting in the Spanish Civil War
Irish soldier John O’Reilly married African American nurse Salaria Kea in 1937
The Irishwoman who became known as ‘the White Woman of the Genesee’
The story of an Irish migrant who was part of both Native American and European society
The Irishman known as the ‘Prince of Pickpockets’ who became a policeman
George Barrington, from Co Kildare, gained a reputation for his colourful escapades as a thief
The Irishwoman who quit teaching to become one of Ireland’s first blues singers
The performer sang alongside some of the great American jazz musicians
The Irish-American who became the first millionaire west of the Mississippi
At the height of the gold rush, Samuel Brannan was earning $150,000 a month
The Greystones woman who climbed the Alps in long skirts to avoid scandal
At a time when women mountaineers were almost unheard of, the Irish climber broke societal rules
The man who left life as a barrister to become British envoy to Afghanistan
William Macnaghten could have been a renowned in the legal profession in his native Ulster
The Irish soldier and police officer who became an Australian explorer
Extraordinary Emigrants: The Galway man was known as ‘quick tempered and tender-hearted’
The Wine Geese: Irish exiles who started new lives in French vineyards
The Irish emigrants who ensured a steady supply of our favourite tipples for the last three centuries
Typhoid Mary: The Irishwoman blamed for bringing a deadly disease to New York
Mary Mallon, a cook, was vilified and suffered extreme punishment for something she had no control over
The Waterford woman who put Ireland on the international fashion map
Extraordinary Emigrant: Sybil Connolly dressed some of the world’s most glamorous women from Jackie Kennedy to Elizabeth Taylor
The forgotten Irishwoman who once ruled the New York fashion industry
Dubliner Carmel Snow gave Truman Capote his first major platform, and launched Dior and Balenciaga in the US market
The Waterford man who married Napoleon Bonaparte’s niece
Politician Thomas Wyse was one of only five Catholics to win a seat in the House of Commons in 1829
The mysterious Irishman who was the first westerner ordained a Buddhist monk
The outspoken Dubliner, who won the respect and admiration of the Burmese people, was found guilty of sedition
The grandson of an Irish nationalist who became ‘Boy Mayor of New York’
John Purroy Mitchel was elected age 34 with the highest share of the vote ever recorded
What brought so many Irish people to live in Zimbabwe?
First St Patrick’s day celebrated on 1891 in a roofless mud-hut building with whiskey, gin and ham
The trailblazing Galway nun who helped eradicate TB from Southeast Asia
Cathleen Monahan became a medic and trained generations of Hong Kong doctors
The Scotch-Irish author of America’s best-selling reading primer
William Holmes McGuffey's books sold more than 120 million copies
The Irish nun who opened schools for the deaf in Australia
Sr Gabriel Hogan provided education for children whose needs would otherwise have been neglected
Elizabeth Bowen, the Big House heiress with the ‘constricted mind’
Extraordinary Emigrants: Writer was a chronicler of her class in its dying days
Johnny Patterson, the Irish singing clown who met a tragic end
Clever songsmith’s irreverent wit was informed by his fluent Irish
The Waterford naval officer who became first governor of New Zealand
William Hobson was implicated in the transfer of land from Maori to profit settlers
The Irish naval officers in imperial Russia
Irish military migrants sought opportunities in the expanding Russian Empire
Dubliner Frances Stewart, one of the first women pioneers in Canada
Letters offer valuable account of loneliness of settler life in the 19th-century
Beatrice Grimshaw, the Belfast explorer treated as a ‘male chief’ on Samoa
She was also a sports journalist, travel writer, novelist, and plantation owner
Harry Ferguson, the ‘Mad Mechanic’ who invented the modern tractor
Before tractors, Ferguson was first in Ireland or Britain to build and fly his own plane
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE...
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
Stardust
Inquests into the nightclub fire that led to the deaths of 48 people
Family NoticesOpens in new window
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices