Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Mangan, James Clarence

(Encyclopedia)Mangan, James Clarence măngˈgən [key], 1803–49, Irish poet. He spent most of his life as a clerk, eventually slipping into alcoholism and opium addiction. His reputation rests on his English rend...

Brooke, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Brooke, Henry, c.1703–1783, Irish author. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he studied law in London before returning to Ireland permanently. In 1735 he published his long philosophical poem, Uni...

Fianna Fáil

(Encyclopedia)Fianna Fáil fēˈənə fäl [key], Irish political party, organized in 1926 by opponents of the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 establishing the Irish Free State and setting up Northern Ireland as part of...

Egmont, John Perceval, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Egmont, John Perceval, 1st earl of, 1683–1748, Irish peer, associate of James E. Oglethorpe in founding Georgia. Elected (1727) to the British House of Commons, he served on Oglethorpe's committee i...

Harvey, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Harvey, William Henry, 1811–66, Irish botanist. An authority on algae, he wrote A Manual of the British Algae (1841), Phycologia Britannica (4 vol., 1846–51), and Phycologia Australica (5 vol., 18...

Higgins, William

(Encyclopedia)Higgins, William, b. 1762 or 1763, d. 1825, Irish chemist. After study at Oxford he became supervisor of the Royal Dublin Society's mineralogical collection and in 1800 the Society's professor of chem...

Milesians

(Encyclopedia)Milesians mĭlēˈzhənz [key], in Irish mythology, the ancestors of the present inhabitants of Ireland. The last invaders of ancient Ireland, they were said to have dwelt in Spain before attacking Ir...

Wall, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Wall, Richard, 1694–1778, Spanish statesman. Born in France of Irish parents, Wall entered the Spanish military service as a young man and later held important diplomatic posts. He helped negotiate ...

Blasket Islands

(Encyclopedia)Blasket Islands, group of rock islets, Co. Kerry, SW Republic of Ireland; a lighthouse is on one of the islets. Most of the inhabitants of the islands were moved to the mainland in 1953. Great Blasket...

Palladius, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Palladius, Saint pəlāˈdēəs [key], d. 431, first bishop of Ireland. Probably of Gallo-Roman origin, Palladius was sent (431) by Pope Celestine I to proselytize among the Irish. He built three chur...