Notable Residents
- Robert Burns, famous Scottish Poet
- Alan M. Boyd, software pioneer
- Kris Boyd, football player
- Kirk Broadfoot, football player
- Sam Brodie, half-Indonesian half-Scottish transvestite and Big Brother contestant.
- Elspeth Buchan, the founder of the Buchanites, an odd society of the Burnsian days which was launched in Irvine.
- Paul Burns, football player
- John Galt, novelist
- George Hamilton, football player
- The Rev Lorna Hood, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2013-14, was born in Irvine in 1953.
- Jack McConnell, former First Minister of Scotland.
- James Montgomery, the Christian poet, was born on the Halfway, Fullarton in 1771. The street was renamed in his honour as Montgomery Street.
- Steven Naismith, football player
- Steve Nicol, football player
- Graeme Obree, racing cyclist and former world hour record-holder, lives near Irvine.
- Alex Parker, football player.
- Ian Parker, musician
- Edgar Allan Poe, American writer. Attended the Grammar school here, from 1815 until 1816, when he re-joined his stepparents in London. Close relatives of his foster father John Allan lie buried in the parish churchyard.
- Keith Salmon painter; he has lived in Irvine since 1998.
- Derek Scott, athlete.
- Ronnie Sharp, darts player.
- James Steadman, the possible inventor of the screw propeller, is buried in the parish churchyard.
- Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Government's Deputy First Minister for Scotland.
- Ross Tollerton, awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at the Battle of the Aisne in 1914.
- Roddy Woomble, singer, born in Irvine in 1976.
- Simon Neil, singer, born in Irvine in 1979, and a pure legend.
- Craig Conway, football player.
Read more about this topic: Irvine, North Ayrshire
Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or residents:
“Every notable advance in technique or organization has to be paid for, and in most cases the debit is more or less equivalent to the credit. Except of course when it’s more than equivalent, as it has been with universal education, for example, or wireless, or these damned aeroplanes. In which case, of course, your progress is a step backwards and downwards.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)