Henry Boylan:Henry Boylan, who died on May 24th aged 95, was best known for A Dictionary of Irish Biography, the third edition of which was published in 1998. He also had a distinguished career as a public servant and was active in the Irish language movement.
The first edition of A Dictionary of Irish Biographywas published in 1978, and was the result of seven years of intensive research. It was the first book of its kind since John S Crone's A Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography(1928).
"At times the work threatened to overwhelm me," Henry Boylan said, "but at the finish it was very satisfying to handle the published work."
The book provides a comprehensive overview of Irish biography, and contains more than 1,500 entries that synopsise the lives and achievements of Ireland's most eminent - and eccentric - people from AD 400 to the final decade of the 20th century.
It includes entries on St Columba, Jonathan Swift, Sir Edward Carson, Arthur Guinness, Margaret Burke Sheridan and John Boland, Ireland's first-ever Olympic gold medal winner. The longest entry is on Éamon de Valera.
The less well-known entries include Marie-Louise O'Morphi, mistress of Louis XV of France and one of Francois Boucher's favourite models.
By way of contrast, there is the hypochondriac Ulster clergyman, Philip Skelton, who regularly summoned his congregation to see him depart this world, until one parishioner could contain his exasperation no longer: "Make a day sir, and keep it, and don't be always disappointing us thus."
With each edition of the dictionary, he found himself writing about friends who had died. These included the poet Valentin Iremonger and the Celtic scholar and lexicographer Tomás de Bhaldraithe. Far from brooding, he sought to ensure that their entries did them justice.
Henry Boylan was born in December 1911 into a seafaring family in Drogheda, Co Louth; past generations included sea captains and master mariners who sailed their own schooners to the Black Sea.
Two of Henry Boylan's brothers went to sea but, after completing his secondary education at St Joseph's CBS, he joined the civil service.
In 1936 he joined Radio Éireann as staff administration officer. The deputy-director Frank Gallagher, took him aside to advise on house style. No one was to be referred to as having taken the republican side in the Civil War. "Remember," Gallagher said, "we stayed on the republican side".
"Staff numbers were small, maybe 30 or 40, and everybody mucked in," Henry Boylan recalled, "so I did programmes as well, radio scripts, radio plays, adapted books for radio, that sort of thing".
In 1941 he enrolled for night classes to study modern languages at Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated in 1945.
Wartime economies and a drop in revenue from sponsored programmes led to a reduction in broadcasting staff. Henry Boylan was transferred to the Department of Lands where he became director of Gaeltacht services.
In that capacity, he was responsible for the conduct and management of Gaeltarra Éireann. Allegations of incompetence, fraud and corruption made against employees of the company were investigated by gardaí and a subsequent court case collapsed. But the affair took its toll on Henry Boylan, who was completely blameless, and his family.
He was relieved when in 1959 he was seconded to a Department of Finance taskforce charged with overseeing the implementation of the First Programme for Economic Development. He found the work demanding but stimulating. Later, as assistant secretary of the Department of Lands, he was entrusted with responsibility for conservation and wildlife.
A major project then was the protection of the Wexford Slobs. "We were concerned with the protection of the Greenland white fronted geese. The largest flock left intact in the world, winters in the slobs."
In 1972 Henry Boylan took early retirement from the Civil Service, and became chairman and managing director of Arramara Teo, a company that harvested and processed seaweed in the west of Ireland. He had been a member of the board since the early 1950s when he persuaded the government to buy a half share in the company. He retired from Arramara in 1982.
As Annraoi Ó Baoighealláin he was an early member and one-time director of Gael Linn. He contributed articles and book reviews to Irish-language publications, and sat on the editorial committee of Comhar.
Henry Boylan's biography of Wolfe Tone was published in 1981. He regarded Tone as naive. "He thought it would be possible to unite Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter under the common name of Irishman. He didn't realise the deep-rooted antagonism of the Protestants and Dissenters to being allied to the rest of Ireland."
Other publications included This Arrogant City: A Reader's and Collector's Guide to Books about Dublin(1983), and A Valley of Kings, The Boyne: Five Thousand Years of History(1988). A memoir, A Voyage Round My Life, was published in 2002.
As a young man, Henry Boylan won a gold medal for rowing in the Tailteann Games. In later life he sailed in Dublin Bay. He was a founder member of the Dublin Oyster Society.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia (née Clancy), sons, Hugo and Peter, daughters, Anna and Kate, and brother, Joseph.
• Henry Boylan: born December 1911; died May 24th, 2007