The Dictionary of Irish Biography

Selected by the DIB's Liz Evers, Michael Dillon is a remarkable figure whose brave quest for self understanding and freedom led him to transition from female to male, West to East, Christianity to Buddhism. Dillon's entry concludes our 'Favourite DIB lives' series. 

Selected by Bláithín Ní Chatháin of the Atlantic Philanthropies Archive Project of the Digital Repository of Ireland,* American philanthropist Asenath Nicholson came to Ireland during the famine years to support the poor. Her two books from the time provide a vital record of the impact of the famine on the lives of ordinary Irish people. 

Selected and written by Dr Patrick Maume of the DIB, James Redpath was an American journalist and anti-slavery campaigner who became an outspoken advocate of the Land League in Ireland.

Selected by Sarah Gearty, cartographic editor of the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, Thomas Phillips was a seventeenth-century military surveyor. His biography is part of our Favourite DIB lives #LockdownReading series.

Selected by Dr Juliana Adelman of DCU, and introduced by Kevin Kenny (Shackleton Autumn School) and Professor Jim McAdam (Shackleton Scholarship Committee), Ernest Shackleton had a gift for coping with crisis and isolation in extreme conditions. Dr Adelman’s new podcast ‘What would Shackleton do?’ considers what we can learn from the explorer in the current Covid-19 crisis.

Selected and written by DIB alumnus Lawrence William White, Mary Mallon was an early-twentieth century ‘super spreader’ of typhoid as cook to New York’s elite. Her biography is part of our ‘Favourite DIB lives’ series.