MR#1
Politics & Law
Mary Robinson
born 1944Former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
79 Wikipedia and sister-site articlesWikipedia ↗
Famous people · Ballina, Co. Mayo
Leaders stand out among the 29 famous people born in Ballina
Mary Robinson is the best known, with articles in 79 languages. Second and third on the list are Caelan Doris and Eva Philbin. Born in 1822, Richard M. Hooley is the first name on record, and Caelan Doris, born in 1998, the most recent. Among the 24 towns in Co. Mayo with famous people on record, the town ranks 2nd.
Born here
29
confirmed by Wikipedia
Best known
Mary Robinson
79 Wikipedia and sister-site articles
First
1822
Richard M. Hooley
Youngest
1998
Caelan Doris
Most common field
Sports
13 people
What stands out about Ballina’s famous people
★ What stands out · The best known
Born in Ballina
By how many languages cover them, Mary Robinson comes first (79), then Caelan Doris (8) and Eva Philbin (7).
#2Sports
Caelan Doris
born 1998Ireland rugby union player
8 Wikipedia and sister-site articlesWikipedia ↗
EP#3
Known for
What Ballina is known for
Set against the usual town, leaders come out 1.9 times as common.
The usual town: the share across everyone listed in Irish towns. Tap a field to see its people.
Through the years
When Ballina’s famous people were born
The 1940s saw the most births of any decade: 6.
SportsPolitics & LawNotableScience & MedicineBusinessWriting & ArtsMusicFilm, TV & Stage
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
Everyone
Everyone else born in Ballina
A further 26 follow, born between 1822 and 1995.
No one matches both filters.
Next door
Famous people from the towns next door
Of the towns around it, Foxford has the most on record: 3.
Questions about famous people from Ballina
Who is the most famous person from Ballina?
Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) is the best known by our measure: Wikipedia has an article about them in 79 languages. Next come Caelan Doris and Eva Philbin.
How many famous people were born in Ballina?
29 people born in Ballina have an English Wikipedia article that confirms the town as their birthplace. Wikidata places 31 people here; the rest aren’t listed because their article names somewhere else, or no town.
What is Ballina known for?
Among its famous people, athletes: 13 of the 29. That is 45% of the town’s list, against 32% across Irish towns.
Who is the earliest-born famous person from Ballina?
Richard M. Hooley, born in 1822. The youngest on the list was born in 1998.
Who counts as from Ballina?
People Wikidata records as born in a place inside Ballina’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 (10)
- Caelan Doris: stede64, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- James Donnelly: Brentford FC, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Edward Whelan: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Martin Birrane: Eddi Laumanns aka RX-Guru, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- P. J. Ruttledge: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- David Cawley: Seaninryan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Gavin Duffy: Caroline Léna Becker, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Richard M. Hooley: Milton George & Co. (publisher), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Sarah Rowe: DustyNail, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Eithne Ní Uallacháin: Photograph by Gerry O'Connor., CC BY-SA 3.0, 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).