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Typhoid Mary and other curiosities in Irish biography

The biggest work ever published about the lives of famous Irish men and women has been launched in Belfast by poet Seamus Heaney.

The nine-volume Dictionary of Irish Biography features more than 9,700 entries and spans 2,000 years of the island's history.

Alongside Northern Ireland luminaries from Joey Dunlop to CS Lewis, the historians and writers have profiled some of the more unusual figures from the past. Here are some abridged versions of just few of them.

Read entire article at BBC