Pat Ahern (director)W
Pat Ahern (director)

Pat Ahern is an Irish Roman Catholic priest, traditional musician, composer, and the founder, artistic director and producer (1974–1997) of Siamsa Tíre, the Irish National Folk Theatre which appeared throughout Ireland and on three continents.

Brendan BehanW
Brendan Behan

Brendan Francis Aidan Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist and playwright who wrote in both English and Irish. He was named by Irish Central as one of the greatest Irish writers of all time.

Colmán of CloyneW
Colmán of Cloyne

Saint Colmán of Cloyne, also Colmán mac Léníne, was a monk, founder and patron of Cluain Uama, now Cloyne, County Cork, Ireland, and one of the earliest known Irish poets to write in the vernacular.

Cormac mac CuilennáinW
Cormac mac Cuilennáin

Cormac mac Cuilennáin was an Irish bishop and the king of Munster from 902 until his death at the Battle of Bellaghmoon. He was killed in Leinster.

Aodh de BlácamW
Aodh de Blácam

Harold Saunders Blackham was an English-born Irish author journalist, and editor. He was associated with 20th century Irish nationalism through movements such as Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and Clann na Poblachta.

Patrick S. DinneenW
Patrick S. Dinneen

Patrick Stephen Dinneen was an Irish lexicographer and historian, and a leading figure in the Gaelic revival.

Piaras FeiritéarW
Piaras Feiritéar

Piaras Feiritéar, or Pierce Ferriter, was an Irish poet.

Michael D. HigginsW
Michael D. Higgins

Michael Daniel Higgins is an Irish politician, poet, sociologist, and broadcaster, who has served as the ninth President of Ireland since November 2011. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway West constituency from 1981 to 1982 and 1987 to 2011. He served as Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht from 1993 to 1997 and Mayor of Galway from 1981 to 1982 and 1990 to 1991. He was a senator from 1973 to 1977, upon being nominated by the taoiseach and from 1983 to 1987 for the National University of Ireland. He was the President of the Labour Party from 2003 to 2011, until he resigned following his election as President of Ireland.

Douglas HydeW
Douglas Hyde

Douglas Ross Hyde, known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn, was an Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician and diplomat who served as the first President of Ireland from June 1938 to June 1945. He was a leading figure in the Gaelic revival, and the first President of the Gaelic League, one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland at the time.

Patrick Weston JoyceW
Patrick Weston Joyce

Patrick Weston Joyce, commonly known as P. W. Joyce was an Irish historian, writer and music collector, known particularly for his research in Irish etymology and local place names of Ireland.

Tadhg Mac DhonnagáinW
Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin

Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin is an award-winning writer, musician and publisher, originally from Aghamore, County Mayo in Ireland.

Proinsias Mac AonghusaW
Proinsias Mac Aonghusa

Proinsias Mac Aonghusa was an Irish journalist, writer, TV presenter and campaigner.

Aodh Mac CathmhaoilW
Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil

Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil, O.F.M., was an Irish Franciscan theologian and Archbishop of Armagh. He was known by Irish speakers at Louvain by the honorary name Aodh Mac Aingil, and it was under this title that he published the Irish work Scáthán Shacramuinte na hAthridhe.

Patrick MacSwineyW
Patrick MacSwiney

Rev. Patrick J. MacSwiney was an Irish Catholic priest, Gaelic scholar, antiquarian, historian, teacher, founder of the Kinsale Regional Museum, and benefactor of the people in the parishes in which he worked.

Brian MerrimanW
Brian Merriman

Brian Merriman or in Irish Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre was an Irish language Bard, farmer, and hedge school teacher from rural County Clare. His single surviving work of substance, the 1000-line long Cúirt An Mheán Oíche, is often compared to the works of François Rabelais. It is widely regarded as the greatest work of comic verse in the history of Irish poetry.

Máire Ní ChinnéideW
Máire Ní Chinnéide

Máire Ní Chinnéide was an Irish language activist, playwright, first President of the Camogie Association and first woman president of Oireachtas na Gaeilge.

Nuala Ní DhomhnaillW
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill [ˈn̪ˠuəl̪ˠə nʲiː ˈɣoː.n̪ˠɪlʲ] is a leading Irish poet.

Máirín Ní DhonnchadhaW
Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha

Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha is an Irish academic and scholar. She is Established Professor of Old and Middle Irish and Celtic Philology at National University of Ireland, Galway. She graduated from University College, Cork, with a BA in Celtic Studies, and MAs and PhD in Old Irish and Middle Irish from Cork, Jesus College, Oxford, and the School of Celtic Studies at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. She has been "Assistant Editor at the Royal Irish Academy's Foclóir na Nua-Ghaeilge, a lecturer in Irish at University College, Dublin and Trinity College, Dublin, and an Assistant Professor at the School of Celtic Studies, DIAS." She has taught at Galway since 1996.

Áine Ní GhlinnW
Áine Ní Ghlinn

Áine Ní Ghlinn is a bilingual Irish journalist, poet, playwright and children's writer. She is the current Laureate na nÓg, 2020—2022, the first to write exclusively in Irish.

Máiréad Ní GhrádaW
Máiréad Ní Ghráda

Máiréad Ní Ghráda was an Irish poet, playwright, and broadcaster born in Kilmaley, County Clare.

Pádraigín Ní UallacháinW
Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin

Dr. Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin is an Irish singer, songwriter, academic and former newsreader from County Louth, Ireland.

Tadhg Ó DonnchadhaW
Tadhg Ó Donnchadha

Tadhg Ó Donnchadha was an Irish writer, poet, editor, translator and a prominent member of the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association. He was editor of Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge, Professor of Irish in University College Cork and Dean of the Faculty of Celtic Studies.

Seán Ó RíordáinW
Seán Ó Ríordáin

Seán Pádraig Ó Ríordáin was an Irish language poet during the twentieth century. He brought European themes into Irish poetry.

Máirtín Ó CadhainW
Máirtín Ó Cadhain

Máirtín Ó Cadhain was one of the most prominent Irish language writers of the twentieth century. Perhaps best known for his 1949 work Cré na Cille, Ó Cadhain played a key role in bringing literary modernism to contemporary Irish language literature. Politically, he was an Irish nationalist and socialist, promoting the Athghabháil na hÉireann, through Gaelic culture. He was a member of the post-Civil War Irish Republican Army with Brendan Behan during the Emergency.

Mícheál Ó CléirighW
Mícheál Ó Cléirigh

Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, sometimes known as Michael O'Clery, was an Irish chronicler, scribe and antiquary and chief author of the Annals of the Four Masters, assisted by Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire, and Peregrinus Ó Duibhgeannain. He was a member of the O'Cleric Bardic family and compiled with others the Annála Ríoghachta Éireann at Bundrowse in County Leitrim on 10 August 1636. He also wrote the Martyrology of Donegal in the 17th Century.

Pádraic Ó ConaireW
Pádraic Ó Conaire

Pádraic Ó Conaire was an Irish writer and journalist whose production was primarily in the Irish language. In his lifetime he wrote 26 books, 473 stories, 237 essays and 6 plays. His acclaimed novel Deoraíocht has been described by Angela Bourke as 'the earliest example of modernist fiction in Irish'.

Tomas O'CrohanW
Tomas O'Crohan

Tomás Ó Criomhthain, anglicised as Tomas O'Crohan or Thomas O'Crohan, was a native of the Irish-speaking Great Blasket Island 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. He wrote two books, Allagar na h‑Inise written over the period 1918–23 and published in 1928, and An t‑Oileánach, completed in 1923 and published in 1929. Both have been translated into English. The 2012 translation by Garry Bannister and David Sowby is to date the only unabridged version available in English.

Cearbhall Ó DálaighW
Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh

Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, judge and barrister who served as the fifth President of Ireland from December 1974 to October 1976. He served as a Judge of the European Court of Justice from 1973 to 1974, Chief Justice of Ireland from 1961 to 1973, a Judge of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1973, and Attorney General of Ireland from 1946 to 1948 and from 1951 to 1953.

Tomás Ó FiaichW
Tomás Ó Fiaich

Tomás Séamus Cardinal Ó Fiaich KGCHS was an Irish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Catholic Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh from 1977 until his death. He was created a Cardinal in 1979. He was born in 1923 in Cullyhanna, and raised in Camlough, County Armagh.

Breandán Ó hEithirW
Breandán Ó hEithir

Breandán Ó hEithir was an Irish writer and broadcaster.

Eoghan Ó NeachtainW
Eoghan Ó Neachtain

Eoghan Ó Neachtain, Irish writer, fl. 1901–1932.

Flann O'BrienW
Flann O'Brien

Brian O'Nolan, better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish novelist, playwright and satirist, considered a major figure in twentieth century Irish literature. Born in Strabane, County Tyrone, he is regarded as a key figure in modernist and postmodern literature. His English language novels, such as At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman, were written under the O’Brien pen name. His many satirical columns in The Irish Times and an Irish language novel An Béal Bocht were written under the name Myles na gCopaleen.

Darach Ó ScolaíW
Darach Ó Scolaí

Darach Ó Scolaí is an Irish novelist, playwright, publisher, and artist living in the County Galway Gaeltacht of Connemara. He was awarded the Oireachtas Prize for Literature in 2007 for his novel, An Cléireach.

Cathal Ó SearcaighW
Cathal Ó Searcaigh

Cathal Ó Searcaigh, is a modern Irish language poet. His work has been widely translated, anthologised and studied. "His confident internationalism", according to Theo Dorgan, has channelled "new modes, new possibilities, into the writing of Irish language poetry in our time".

P. A. Ó SíocháinW
P. A. Ó Síocháin

Pádraig Augustine Ó Síocháin (1905–1995) was an Irish journalist, author, lawyer, Irish language activist and entrepreneur, born in Kanturk, County Cork, Ireland on 26 May 1905, the sixth child of D. D. Sheehan, MP for Mid-Cork, of Kanturk, and Mary Pauline from Tralee, County Kerry.

Pádraig Ó SnodaighW
Pádraig Ó Snodaigh

Pádraig Ó Snodaigh is an Irish language activist, poet, writer and publisher. He worked for the Irish Electricity Supply Board, and later in the National Museum of Ireland. He is a former president of Conradh na Gaeilge, the Gaelic League.

Maurice O'SullivanW
Maurice O'Sullivan

Muiris Ó Súileabháin, Irish pronunciation: [ˈmˠɪɾʲɪʃ oː sˠuːlʲəˈvˠɑːnʲ]; 19 February 1904 – 25 June 1950), was an Irish author famous for his Irish-language memoir of growing up on the Great Blasket Island and in Dingle, County Kerry, off the western coast of Ireland.

Patrick PearseW
Patrick Pearse

Patrick Henry Pearse was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist, republican political activist and revolutionary who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916. Following his execution along with fifteen others, Pearse came to be seen by many as the embodiment of the rebellion.

Peig SayersW
Peig Sayers

Peig Sayers was an Irish author and seanchaí born in Dunquin, County Kerry, Ireland. Seán Ó Súilleabháin, the former archivist for the Irish Folklore Commission, described her as "one of the greatest woman storytellers of recent times".

Eithne StrongW
Eithne Strong

Eithne Strong was a bilingual Irish poet and writer who wrote in both Irish and English. Her first poems in Irish were published in Combar and An Glor 1943-44 under the name Eithne Ni Chonaill. She was a founder member of the Runa Press whose early Chapbooks featured artwork by among others Jack B. Yeats, Sean Keating, Sean O'Sullivan, Harry Kernoff among others. The press was noted for the publication in 1943 of 'Marrowbone Lane by Robert Collis which depicts the fierce fighting that took place during the Easter Rising of 1916.

Alan TitleyW
Alan Titley

Alan Titley MRIA is an Irish-language novelist, translator, playwright and professor. He also wrote columns under the name Crobhingne.

Áed Ua CrimthainnW
Áed Ua Crimthainn

Áed Ua Crimthainn, also called Áed mac Crimthainn, was abbot and coarb of Terryglass, near Lough Derg in County Tipperary, Ireland. He was the principal scribe of the Book of Leinster, the Book of Oughaval, an important Middle Irish medieval illuminated manuscript, and is also believed to have been its sole compiler.

Peadar Ua LaoghaireW
Peadar Ua Laoghaire

Father Peadar Ua Laoghaire (Irish pronunciation: [ˈpʲad̪ˠəɾˠ oː ˈl̪ˠeːɾʲə], first name locally [ˈpʲad̪ˠəɾʲ]; also Peadar Ó Laoghaire was an Irish writer and Catholic priest, who is regarded today as one of the founders of modern literature in Irish.