Ireland
January 15th Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan
February 9th Former Manchester United and Celtic footballer Liam Miller
April 17th Country'n'Irish giant Big Tom
March 14th Uilleann piper Liam O'Flynn
May 15th Playwright Tom Murphy
June 13th Chef and Ballymaloe matriarch Myrtle Allen
August 4th Fiddler Tommy Peoples
September 19th TV presenter Bunny Carr
October 19th Former Tyrone Guthrie Centre director Bernard Loughlin
October 25th Concert promoter John Reynolds
November 7th Composer and musician Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
November 15th Singer Sonny Knowles
December 23rd Award-winning journalst and former Irish Times literary correspondent Eileen Battersby
International
January 5th Ray Thomas, mustachioed flautist from the Moody Blues
January 15th British actor Peter Wyngarde, best known as the camp sleuth Jason King in the series of the same name
January 22nd Novelist Ursula K LeGuin, author of the Earthsea series
January 24th Mark E Smith, leader of seminal Manchester band The Fall
February 4th Actor John Mahoney, who played Frasier's dad, Martin, in the US sitcom
February 21st Evangelist Billy Graham
March 11th Comedian Ken Dodd
March 14th Physicist Stephen Hawking
April 2nd South African anti-apartheid activist and politician Winnie Mandela
April 5th English darts champion Eric Bristow
April 13th Film director Milos Forman
April 17th Former US first lady Barbara Bush
April 20th Swedish DJ Avicii
April 21st Verne Troyer, best known as Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies
May 13th Actor Margot Kidder, best known as Lois Lane in the Superman movies
May 14th Tom Wolfe, author of The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities
May 22nd Philip Roth, author of Portnoy's Complaint
June 28th American author Harlan Ellison
June 29th Comic book writer and artist Steve Ditko
August 16th Soul singer Aretha Franklin
August 25th US senator John McCain
September 6th Actor Burt Reynolds
November 12th Marvel Comics maestro Stan Lee
November 30th Former US president George HW Bush
December 6th Buzzcocks singer Pete Shelley