#1Famous people · Athenry, Co. Galway
11 famous people were born in Athenry, most of them since 1970
The best known is the Irish track cyclist Lydia Gurley, with articles in 9 languages. Padraic Fallon (1905) and Lydia Gurley (1984) mark the two ends of the list. More are writers and artists than anything else, 2 in all. The list comes to 23.9 for every 10,000 residents, against 7.3 in the typical town in Co. Galway.
Born here
11
confirmed by Wikipedia
Best known
Lydia Gurley
9 Wikipedia and sister-site articles
First
1905
Padraic Fallon
Youngest
1984
Lydia Gurley
What stands out about Athenry’s famous people
★ What stands out · Through the years
When Athenry’s famous people were born
The busiest decade was the 1970s, with 5 births.
NotableWriting & ArtsSportsScience & Medicine
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
The best known
Born in Athenry
Lydia Gurley, Brian Feeney and Margaret Heavey are written about in 9, 2 and 2 languages.
#1BF#2
MH#3
Science & Medicine
Margaret Heavey
1908–1980Irish polyglot and classics scholar
2 Wikipedia and sister-site articlesWikipedia ↗
Known for
What Athenry is known for
The field with the most names is Writing & Arts: 2.
The usual town: the share across everyone listed in Irish towns. Tap a field to see its people.
Everyone
Everyone else born in Athenry
8 more, 2 of them writers and artists.
No one matches both filters.
Next door
Famous people from the towns next door
Of the towns nearby, Loughrea lists the most people: 10.
Questions about famous people from Athenry
Who is the most famous person from Athenry?
Lydia Gurley (Irish track cyclist) is the best known by our measure: Wikipedia has an article about them in 9 languages. Next come Brian Feeney and Margaret Heavey.
How many famous people were born in Athenry?
11 people born in Athenry have an English Wikipedia article that confirms the town as their birthplace. Wikidata places 14 people here; the rest aren’t listed because their article names somewhere else, or no town.
Who is the earliest-born famous person from Athenry?
Padraic Fallon, born in 1905. The youngest on the list was born in 1984.
Who counts as from Athenry?
People Wikidata records as born in a place inside Athenry’s urban area (the CSO’s 2022 urban area), a hospital or district within it included, whose English Wikipedia article agrees. People who only lived here, adult performers and people known mainly for crimes aren’t listed.
Why is someone missing?
Their Wikidata birthplace may be a county or just “Ireland”, a townland or village we don’t list, another town, or missing, or their article may give no birthplace. We only list people both sources agree on; editing Wikidata or Wikipedia changes this page at the next refresh.
From Wikidata (CC0: birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations, how many Wikipedia and sister-site articles cover each person) and English Wikipedia (each person’s article confirms the birthplace; linked, not quoted). A birthplace is placed in a town by its own Wikidata item, its Logainm place name, or a point inside its CSO 2022 outline; a birth recorded only as one of the five cities stays on the city’s page. Ranked by the number of articles. Fields are read from Wikidata’s description and occupations. “The usual town”: everyone listed across Irish towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Photo credits (3)
- Lydia Gurley: Nicola, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Henry Benedict Medlicott: James Fisher, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Hildegarde Naughton: House of the Oireachtas, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).