The Royal Irish Academy/Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann champions research. We identify and recognise Ireland’s world class researchers. We support scholarship and promote awareness of how science and the humanities enrich our lives and benefit society. We believe that good research needs to be promoted, sustained and communicated. The Academy is run by a Council of its members. Membership is by election and considered the highest Academic honour in Ireland.
Read more about the RIAThe Dictionary of Irish Biography is Ireland’s national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition covers nearly 11,000 lives.
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Read featured biographies and learn about the latest initiatives from the Dictionary of Irish Biography
This evening (Tues 10 Dec), Fintan O'Toole delivers a lecture 'Biography and history: the case of the Sheridans' at the RIA as part of a celebratory evening marking ten years since the first volumes of the DIB were published. Below is the DIB entry for Richard Brinsley Sheridan, one of the Sheridan family's many luminaries.
To mark the publication of Ireland: a voice among the nations by John Gibney, Michael Kennedy and Kate O'Malley, we are publishing the intriguing biography of Máire O'Brien who also features in the book. O'Brien will appear for the first time in the DIB later in December.
To celebrate the publication by the Ulster Historical Foundation of Transatlantic lives: the Irish experience in Colonial America, we publish the DIB entry on Anne Bonney, by Frances Clarke.
To mark the publication of A history of Ireland in 100 words here is the biography of Adomnán, who makes an appearance in the entry for the word 'Cáin', tax laws, specifically the landmark Cáin Adomnáin (law of Adomnán) decreed in 697 to secure the protection of non-comabatants in war.
To mark the publication of A history of Ireland in 100 words the DIB is publishing biographies of key figures from Irish history who make intriguing appearances in the new book. Queen Medb of Connacht, for example, shows up in entries as diverse as 'Carn', 'Fadhb' (problem solving) and 'Cara' (friendship).
To mark Samhain we present the biography of Alice Kyteler, the first recorded person to be condemned for sorcery in Ireland.
Please write to the Managing Editor, Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2, Ireland, or email dib@ria.ie