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Former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and one of the kidnappers of the industrialist Tiede Herrema in Limerick in 1975.

Austin Clarke was one of the leading poets of the post-Yeats generation best known for his exceptional style which combined the English language with the rhythm of traditional Irish-language poetry. His published poetic works include The Vengeance of Fionn (1917), Night and Morning (1938) and Ancient Lights (1955). Clarke also wrote plays, novels and two volumes of memoirs.

Lorna Teresa Reynolds was born on 17 January 1911 in Jamaica as the eldest of five children of Michael Reynolds and Teresa Anne née Hickey. When her father died in 1921, she and her family returned to Ireland. Having spent three years in Birr, county Offaly, the family moved to Dublin, where Lorna completed her secondary education at the Dominican College on Eccles Street. She continued her education at University College Dublin, where she studied English, obtaining a BA in 1933, an MA in 1935 and a doctorate in 1940. Her doctoral dissertation dealt with the Bible. During her college years, she made lasting friendships with Mary Lavin, Cyril Cusack and Brian O’Nolan, better known as Flann O’Brien.

Shortly after graduating, Reynolds joined the teaching staff at UCD, where her striking presence, intense love of English literature and ability to listen made her highly popular among students. Her relationships with the college authorities was less successful, particularly so in the case of the then president, Michael Tierney, to whom she refers in her letters as ‘the snake in the grass’. In 1966, Reynolds was appointed Professor of Modern English at University College Galway. Here, she revitalised the department and organised a number of high-profile conferences, most notably the J. M. Synge centenary conference in 1971. She served as editor of the University Review (now Irish University of Review) in the 1950s. She also co-edited two books with Robert O’Driscoll, Yeats and the Theatre (1975) and The Untold Story: The Irish in Canada (1988).

In addition to being a distinguished academic, Reynolds was an accomplished poet and translator of Italian poetry, sometimes in collaboration with Gioia Gaidoni (1915-1993). Her poems and short stories were published in the Dublin Magazine in the 1940s and later in The Bell, Poetry Ireland, Arena, The Lace Curtain and Botteghe Oscure. She was a familiar figure at various international writers’ conferences and socialised with many of the leading European writers of the day.

One of defining aspects of Reynolds’ life was her strong belief in women’s rights and the importance of their contribution to Irish society. She was a leading member of the Women’s Social and Progressive League in the 1940s and actively involved in the UCD Women Graduates’ Association. She was also a popular after-dinner speaker at various women’s groups.

In 1978, Reynolds returned to Dublin to live in the old family home on Merrion Square. She derived great pleasure from entertaining friends and was an excellent cook, a skill which culminated in the publication of a cook book, Tasty Food for Hasty Folk, in 1990.

Lorna Reynolds died on 4 July 2003 aged 91.

The De Lavals were a notable Huguenot family who claimed descent from King Henry IV of France and held title to extensive seigneuries in Picardy. Like other Huguenot families, they had greatly benefited from the Edict of Nantes issued by Henry IV in 1598, which granted substantial rights to Calvinist Protestants in a strongly Catholic country. The Edict was bitterly opposed by the Catholic clergy and many French parliaments and was eventually revoked by Louis XIV in 1685. The revocation deprived French Protestants of all religious and civil liberties and subjected them to intense religious persecution. The Vicomte Henri Robert d’Ully de Laval was imprisoned at Laon in 1688 and his estates were declared forfeit. He was able to escape in September 1689, and eventually sought refuge in Ireland. He moved to Portarlington in 1695, where his rank and considerable wealth allowed him to establish a leading position in the community.

In 1808, the Vicomte’s great-granddaughter Deborah Charlotte Newcombe married Thomas Gilbert Willis, son of Thomas Willis, the Master of Portarlington’s most famous French school. Thomas Gilbert, who had taken Holy Orders in the Anglican community, was appointed Rector of Kilmurry Church, Limerick (now adjacent to the campus of the University of Limerick); his son Thomas was appointed Curate to the same church in 1832. Thomas Gilbert was also appointed Prebendary to St Mary’s Cathedral, and Master of the Diocesan School which he ran from his house in Thomas Street. He died in 1837 and was buried outside the west door of the Cathedral. Following his death, his widow opened a Day and Boarding School for Young Ladies in No. 5 Pery Square, while his son William continued to run the private school in Thomas Street. Thus, the strong tradition of education established by the Willis family in Portarlington was successfully extended to Limerick.

The Odell family were Cromwellian settlers and have been associated with county Limerick since the mid-seventeenth century. In the 1770s, John Fitzcharles Odell built a house, Odellville, in the parish of Ballingarry. The property passed to the Morony family through the marriage of Helen Mary Odell to Edmund Morony in 1860.

Charles James Coote was born on 19 August 1837 as the second of the five children Lieutenant-Colonel Charles James Coote of Mount Coote, county Limerick and Alice née Stuart. His elder brother having died in infancy, Charles succeeded to the Mount Coote estate in 1853, when his father was killed in action in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. Charles James Coote gained the rank of Captain in the 18th Royal Irish Regiment. He married Emily Pakenham in 1867 and died without issue on 11 March 1925.

William Patrick Manahan was born on 18 May 1878 in Ballylanders, county Limerick as the eldest son of William Manahan, manager of the Mitchelstown Workhouse, and his wife Helen née Lynch. He studied in Ballyhaise Agricultural College in county Cavan and in 1913 was appointed manager of Ardpatrick Creamery. Soon after that date, he also set about establishing a company of the Irish Volunteers in Ballylanders and served as its first commandant. Companies were also formed in Ardpatrick, Galbally, Kilfinane, Anglesboro and Kilbehenny and together they formed the Galtee Battalion of the Irish Volunteers. He was arrested in February 1917 on suspicion of importing arms and was sent to England but escaped three months later and travelled back to Ireland. Upon his return, criticism was levelled at Manahan owing to his decision to carry out manoeuvres in Galbally on Easter Sunday despite Eoin MacNeill’s countermanding order. A split developed between supporters of Manahan and those of his most vocal critic, Donncha O Hannigan. Following an inquiry into the affair, Manahan was suspended and subsequently left the area so that unity would be restored to the Volunteer movement. The Galtee Battalion was restructured as the East Limerick Brigade at the end of May 1918, while Manahan took up the post of manager of the Land Bank and Irish Agricultural Organisation in Waterford. He emigrated to America in 1928 but returned to Ireland in 1938 and was appointed Inspector of the Irish Land Commission. Liam Manahan died on 8 January 1972 aged 94 and is buried in Ballylanders Cemetery.

Dudley Ryves (d. c. 1793) was the agent and receiver to Francis Thomas, 3rd Earl of Kerry in the 1760s.