The Dictionary of Irish Biography

At a time when Ireland's relationship with alcohol is increasingly under the spotlight, the DIB has complied a selection of biographies dealing with drinking and responses to it. We start our series with John MacBride, a ‘drunken, vainglorious lout’ exemplifying the best and the worst of a type of alcohol-fuelled machismo that has long been a feature of Irish masculinity.  

A victim of her husband’s alcoholism, and unwilling to play the expected role of the patiently suffering wife, Lady Catherine Morgan became the focus of nineteenth-century Ireland’s most sensational divorce case. 

Our series continues with Matt Talbot, Ireland’s most celebrated reformed alcoholic. Talbot achieved posthumous fame by embracing a life of pious austerity with the same lack of moderation that had formerly characterised his drinking.

After bagging an enviable studio contract and choice film roles, Constance Smith was undone by Hollywood casting politics and subsided tragically into alcohol addiction.

We continue our series on alcohol in the DIB with famed temperance crusader Theobald Mathew.

With so many holiday plans on hold this summer, the DIB has compiled a selection of intrepid explorers we can accompany on their exciting travels. We start the series with Lady Heath, the first woman to complete a solo flight from South Africa to England.