Peadar Ó Doirnín, Gaelic-Irish poet, c. 1700-69.

Ó Doirnín is one of the most celebrated of the Ulster poets in the eighteenth century and along with Art Mac Cumhaigh, Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna and Séamas Dall Mac Cuarta was part of the Airgíalla tradition of poetry and song. They were the northern representatives of the Hidden Ireland of poets and learned scholars whose existence in eighteenth century Munster Daniel Corkery famously wrote about in his 1924 classic.

Ó Doirnín's work is still alive in the tradition of north Leinster and south Ulster, while his authorship of nationally and internationally celebrated songs like Mná na hÉireann is little known. Other songs such as Úrchnoc Chéin mhic Cáinte make classic Gaelic appeals for a return to nature reminiscent of its contemporary Lon Doire an Chairn (a poem which attained new renown in the twentieth century under the title Blackbird of Derrycairn by Austin Clarke). For the sexual inferences of Úrchnoc Chéin mhic Cáinte, Ó Doirnín, the Hedgeschool master, is reputed to have been dismissed from his teaching job.

James Last (also known as "Hansi") (born Hans Last, 17 April 1929, Bremen, Germany) is a German composer and big band leader. His "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom. His composition, "Happy Heart", became an international success in interpretations by Andy Williams and Petula Clark. According to the British Hit Singles & Albums book, he has reportedly sold in excess of seventy million albums worldwide.

Last's father was an official at the public works department of the city of Bremen and he grew up in the suburb of Sebaldsbrück. He learned to play the piano from the age of 12, then switched to double bass as a teenager. His home city was heavily bombed in World War II and he ran messages to air defence command posts during raids. At 14 he was entered in the Bückeburg Military Music School of the German Wehrmacht.

After the fall of the Nazis, he joined Hans-Gunther Österreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra in 1946. In 1948, he became the leader of the Last-Becker Ensemble, which performed for seven years. During that time, he was voted as the best bassist in the country by a German jazz poll for three consecutive years, from 1950–1952. After the Last-Becker Ensemble disbanded, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as for a number of European radio stations. For the next decade, he helped arrange hits for artists like Helmut Zacharias, Freddy Quinn, Lolita, Alfred Hause and Caterina Valente.