Coleraine - Notable People

Notable People

  • Well-known people from Coleraine include the actor James Nesbitt, the actress Michelle Fairley, the novelist Maggie O'Farrell, David Cunningham from the band The Flying Lizards, the Ulster and Ireland rugby union player Andrew Trimble, British ladies' figure skating champion Jenna McCorkell, Folk Singer Damien O' Kane and Olympic Rowers Alan Campbell, Peter Chambers, Richard Chambers and Richard Archibald.
  • Coleraine was also the home of Andrew Bonar Law, Prime minister of the United Kingdom for a short period in the 1920s. He lived in the manse beside the 1st Coleraine Presbyterian Church on Abbey Street.
  • Actor and comedian, Zach Galifianakis's Grandmother was a native of the town.
  • Dave McElfatrick, co-writer of acclaimed comic Cyanide & Happiness is a native of the town.
  • Made in Chelsea extra Michael Fraser has family connections to Coleraine and would often spend holidays in the town and indeed continues to do so.
  • Suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams, lived in Coleraine (in the Mountsandel area) from 1911 to 1916 and attended the Coleraine Academical Institution. He became a general practitioner and worked in Eastbourne from 1922. He was charged in 1957 with the murder of 2 patients but was acquitted. He was, however, suspected of causing the death of 163 other patients.
  • The ancestors of James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States, were among the first Ulster-Scots settlers, emigrating from Coleraine in 1680 to become a powerful political family in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
  • Davy Boyle, the Caring Caretaker, caretaker of Coleraine Town Hall has for years been raising large amounts of money for charity. Every year he undertakes a 'sit out' in December and he has received an MBE for his efforts.
  • W. Speedy Moore, a musician, a storyteller, a fisherman, and an award-winning journalist who received the MBE and saw his achievements as a must-read columnist for The Coleraine Chronicle earn the reading of a special citation in the British House Of Commons.
  • Noted mathematical physicist Sir Thomas Ranken Lyle, pioneer of X-ray technology in Australia and former Ireland international rugby union player.
  • Jayne Wisener, best known for playing the role of Johanna, in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street grew up in Coleraine, where she attended Coleraine High School for girls.
  • North Carolina publisher and businessman William Boleyn was grandson of Aaron Boleyn, who was born and raised in Coleraine until he moved to America in 1710.
  • Entertainer and teacher TG Boleyn of Iowa, but long time resident of North Carolina, is also a descendant of Aaron Boleyn of Coleraine.

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