Irish names added to new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

A number of high-profile names from the North of Ireland are among the latest to be added to the newest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The lives of 217 men and women who died in 2008 are now part of the dictionary series, which includes 53,084 articles telling the life stories of 58,094 people. The new additions include a selection of people who shaped or commented on the recent history of the North. They are Sir John Hermon, Brian Keenan, Conor Cruise O'Brien, and Basil Kelly. The four Irishmen take their place alongside other new additions to the Oxford DNB including the dramatist Harold Pinter, science fiction and science writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the broadcast journalist Sir Charles Wheeler, jazz trumpeter and radio performer Humphrey Lyttelton and television performer Jeremy Beadle - all of whom died in 2008. The Oxford DNB is updated three times annually and published every January, May, and September