Celbridgians
John Alen Archbishop of Dublin, and Chancellor of Ireland, (1476–1534), casualty of the “Silken Thomas” Fitzgerald rebellion in 1534, and his cousin John Alen (c.1500-1561), also Lord Chancellor, buried at Donaghcumper.
Patrick Browne (d1614) from Backweston, an outspoken opponent of religious persecution of Catholics who was imprisoned for his beliefs.
Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick (1634-1715), a member of Irish Parliament, Royalist military officer during the English Civil War, colonel of an Irish regiment in Louis XIV’s army as Thomas D’Unguent, and first governor of the Province of New York (1682-8).
William “Speaker” Conolly (1662–1729) rose from lowly origins to become the most powerful and wealthiest politician in Ireland in the first decades of the 18th century.
Arthur Price (1678–1752) serial bishop of four different Church of Ireland dioceses, culminating in the Archbishopric of Archbishop of Cashel, and benefactor to Brewer Arthur Guinness.
Damien Rice (b1973) noted singer-songwriter
John Wynn Baker (c.1730–1775) established the first factory in Ireland in 1765 at Elm Hall.
Thomas Conolly (1738–1803) radical Irish politician of the 1780s and Grand Nephew of William “Speaker” Conolly, he was involved in the 1789 effort to establish a separatist monarchy with the Prince of Wales as King of Ireland.
Lady Louisa Conolly (1743–1821), wife of Tom Conolly and her sister Sarah Napier (1745–1826), wife of George Napier, both daughters of Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond and great granddaughters of Charles II of England and Louise de Keroualle and sister of Emily Fitzgerald (1731-1814), who married James Fitzgerald, Duke of Leinster (1722-1773) and lived in Carton House in Maynooth. Their lives were celebrated in Stella Tillyard’s book “The Aristocrats” and a six part BBC TV series based on the book.
Henry Grattan (1746-1821) renowned 18th Irish patriot politician, lived with his uncle Colonel Thomas Marlay at Celbridge Abbey between 1777 and 1780. He afterwards wrote: “Along the banks of that river, amid the groves and bowers of Swift and Vanessa, I grew convinced that I was right”.
John Sheehan (1809–82) poet, jailed in 1833 for campaigning journalism against the tithe system, later became editor of the Independent of London and writer of poetry under several pseudonyms.
Art O’Connor (1888–1950) became Minister for Agriculture in the second Dáil Cabinet (1921), in which role he drew up the founding legislation for the Land Commission. He was briefly leader of Sinn Féin after the foundation of Fianna Fáil by Éamon de Valera (1927) and later served as a judge.
Three Celbridge residents were elected Lord Mayor of Dublin:
Bartholomew Van Homrigh (d1703) was born in Danzig/Gdansk and came to Dublin from Amsterdam in Charles II’s reign. He served as Commissary-General to William III’s army and agent to General Godert van Ginkel. He was elected Lord Mayor in 1697. His daughter, Esther Van Homrigh became the ‘Vanessa’ of Jonathan Swift
James Lambert (1811-77) was a merchant who lived in Stacumny and was Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1859
Ben Briscoe (b1934) was a Teachta Dála for 37 years, representing a series of constituencies in Dublin. He was Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1989, the city’s millennium year.