Sometimes the best stuff you come across on the web is found purely by chance. I happened upon the Princess Grace Irish Library - Electronic Irish Records Dataset (hence the odd URL, it has nothing to do with the phone company) one day by following a link from another site. Before using this wonderful site you have to accept that "PGIL-EIRData is a scholars' notebook and not a commercial publication of any kind" and "should be cited in any publication involving materials found here", which is very good advice for any use of the web.
As it says in the "About" section: "PGIL EIRData is an ambitious Internet project in Irish studies comprising an extensive set of digital records dealing with Irish literary authors and their works in all periods . . . a tribute to Irish literary attainments."
The site's primary objective is to provide "biographical and bibliographical materials together with sample texts and commentary for research and teaching Irish studies." Ultimately it aims to assemble the widest possible range of information about Irish writers with "various textual materials including works and commentary upon them both in excerpt-form and paraphrase, all intended for use by the world-wide Irish studies community".
The list of authors goes from Thomas Kingsmill Abbott (1829-1913, Professor of Greek at TCD, wrote four books), through Bob Geldof (whom it describes as the "son of a Belgian cook") and Nahum Tate (16521715, born in Dublin, son of a dissenting clergyman and author of a huge number of books) to Zozimus (a pseudonym used by Michael Moran who was born in the Liberties in Dublin, was blind from birth, married twice and had one son).
It also has a list of Irish journals, starting with An Account of the Chief Occurrences in Ireland, which lasted for five issues in 1659, and finishing with Zozimus, a Dublin comic magazine edited by Richard Dowling and owned by T D Sullivan which lasted from 1870 to 1872 and was, of course, named for Michael Moran's chosen pseudonym. This is an utterly fascinating site, brilliantly organised and full of amazing information. An absolute must-see for anyone remotely interested in Irish literature.
