Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

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...

Petty, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Petty, Sir William, 1623–87, English statistician and physician. He was a founder of the Royal Society and was physician general to the army of Ireland in 1652. Petty's survey of the Irish estates a...

Fitzwilliam, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Fitzwilliam, Sir William, 1526–99, lord deputy of Ireland. He acquired (1547) land in Ireland by a grant of Edward VI. Although a Protestant, he was loyal to Queen Mary I, and she appointed him keep...

Pembroke, Richard de Clare, 2d earl of

(Encyclopedia)Pembroke, Richard de Clare, 2d earl of, d. 1176, English nobleman, also known as Richard Strongbow. He went as an adventurer (1170) to Ireland at the request of the hard-pressed Dermot McMurrough, kin...

Sinn Féin

(Encyclopedia)Sinn Féin shĭn fān [key] [Irish,=we, ourselves], Irish nationalist movement. It had its roots in the Irish cultural revival at the end of the 19th cent. and the growing nationalist disenchantment w...

Ormonde, Thomas Butler, 10th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Ormonde, Thomas Butler, 10th earl of, 1532–1614, Irish nobleman. Brought up at the English court, he was the first of his family to embrace Protestantism. He succeeded to the earldom of Ormonde in 1...

Craigavon

(Encyclopedia)Craigavon, town and district, S central Northern Ireland. Craigavon was designated one of the new towns in 1962, primarily to stimulate economic growth....

Mortimer, Roger de, 4th earl of March and 2d earl of Ulster

(Encyclopedia)Mortimer, Roger de, 4th earl of March and 2d earl of Ulster, 1374–98, English nobleman. He succeeded (1381) his father, Edmund de Mortimer, 3d earl of March, and was brought up as a royal ward. In 1...

Plunkett, Sir Horace Curzon

(Encyclopedia)Plunkett, Sir Horace Curzon, 1854–1932, Irish statesman and agricultural reformer. Educated in England, Plunkett spent 10 years (1879–89) in Wyoming as a cattle rancher. Returning to Ireland, he b...

Croker, Thomas Crofton

(Encyclopedia)Croker, Thomas Crofton, 1798–1854, Irish antiquary, b. Cork. One of the first to collect Irish folklore, he compiled Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825–28), Legends of the ...