# Persons Of Note Candidate Review

Date created: 2026-09-07

Purpose: track people who bear relevant surname forms and may belong in the public `Persons of note` section. This is not a family tree, proof of descent, or claim of relationship. Candidates are assessed only through this project's public lens: Irish-language scholarship, manuscript work, folklore, local history, archive preservation, source transmission, and public cultural record.

## Inclusion Rules

- Preserve each source's exact spelling of the person's name.
- Prefer deceased historical figures and institutional sources for live-page profile cards.
- Treat living people conservatively. Include them publicly only when they are already public figures and the site can make a narrow, non-sensitive claim from strong sources.
- Keep family historians, memoirists, and private genealogy leads out of the live profile list until the user explicitly approves the scope and wording.
- Do not infer family connection, descent, entitlement, arms, or shared origin from surname match alone.

## Public-Ready Candidates

| Person | Dates | Source-backed relevance | Principal sources | Confidence | Current status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Brian Ó Luanaigh / Brian O'Looney | 1828-1901 | Co. Clare Celticist, manuscript scholar, editor, translator, Royal Irish Academy member, Catholic University Irish-language professor, Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language founder/chair, and named folklore source in published Clare material. | DIB; Ainm.ie; NLI catalogue records; NLI Sources Ms. 5320; `Folk-Lore` Vol. 21; Google Books record for `The Fate of the Children of Lir`. | A/B | Featured on live page. Resolve death-date discrepancy before any detailed timeline. Build a separate bibliography/manuscript module before expanding public copy. |
| Timothy "Tim" Looney | 1914-1990 | Cahir local historian, collector, community figure, and archive preserver. University of Limerick describes the Timothy Looney Papers and credits him with salvaging Shanbally Castle estate papers before demolition. | University of Limerick Special Collections actor record; UL Special Collections blog on Shanbally Castle ledger. | A/B | Featured on live page as a second documented person of note. |

## Review Candidates

| Person | Dates | Source-backed relevance | Principal sources | Confidence | Review question |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Dónall Ó Luanaigh | 1941- | Former Keeper of Collections at the National Library of Ireland; honoured by NUI Galway in 2006; author/contributor in Irish historical and biographical scholarship. University of Galway's notice states that he joined NLI staff in 1968, retired in 2006 after 43 years of service, and contributed to research and scholarship through serials and manuscript-source work. | University of Galway 2006 news item; NLI catalogue for `Librarians, poets and scholars`; DIB contributor page; Persée article record. | B/C | Public figure, but likely living or recently living. Keep as research-note-only unless the project explicitly includes modern public figures with narrow, non-sensitive wording. |
| Pat / Patrick O'Looney | Living or recent public author | Published author and family historian whose works include `The O'Looneys of North West Clare`; potentially relevant for bibliography and family-history context. | Ainm.ie reference to Pat O'Looney; An Siopa Leabhar / publication listings; author-publication metadata. | C/D | Useful as a bibliography lead, but family-history and living-person sensitivity make this unsuitable for live profile copy without user approval. |
| Thomas O'Looney | Unknown | Appears in Dúchas / Meitheal snippets as a writer about Mount Callan and relative of Prof. Brian O'Looney. | Dúchas Meitheal change-log snippets for `Máille - A Local Man`. | D | Needs direct source verification before any public mention. |
| Treasa Ní Luanaigh | Active in 1930s school collection | Named collector of Co. Clare Schools' Collection folklore items. | Dúchas item records including `Forts`, `Holy Wells`, `Care of the Feet`, `Old Sayings`, `Smiths`, and `Scéal Greannmhar`. | A | Strong named-bearer evidence, but not necessarily a "person of note." Better represented in Folklore unless a fuller biographical source is found. |
| Bríghid Ní Luanaigh | Active in 1930s school collection | Named informant for `Care of the Feet`; parent of collector in Dúchas metadata. | Dúchas `Care of the Feet`. | A | Keep in Folklore metadata unless fuller public context is found. |
| Máiréad / Mairéad Ní Luanaigh | Active in 1930s school collection | Named collector in Gortown / Kilshanny Schools' Collection material. | Dúchas records including `An Lios`, `Tiarnaí Talúin`, `Seanfhocail`, `Biddy Early`, and related items. | A | Keep in Folklore metadata unless fuller public context is found. |

## Deferred Or Caution-Only

| Person / group | Reason deferred |
| --- | --- |
| Modern living professionals with surname matches only | A surname match is not enough; exclude unless their work is directly relevant to the site's heritage, language, folklore, manuscript, or archive lens. |
| Commercial crest-site or surname-site named examples | These sources are leads only and should not drive people-of-note selection. |
| Private family-line candidates | Out of scope for public v0 unless the user later defines scope, permissions, and privacy boundaries. |

## Next Research Pass

- Search direct institutional catalogues for `Looney`, `O'Looney`, `Ó Luanaigh`, `Ní Luanaigh`, `Loney`, `Lowney`, and `Lunney`.
- Prioritize DIB, Ainm.ie, NLI, RIA, UCC, UL, Irish History Online, Persée, JSTOR/open scholarly records, and local-history society catalogues.
- For each candidate, capture name spelling, dates, place, role, project relevance, source URLs, confidence class, living-person sensitivity, and recommended public status.
- Follow `research/deep-research-pass-2026-09-12.md` for the Brian O'Looney bibliography/manuscript lane before adding more public profile detail.