Ireland
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January 15th Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan
February 9th Former Manchester United and Celtic footballer Liam Miller
April 17th Country'n'Irish giant Big Tom
March 14th Uilleann piper Liam O'Flynn
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May 15th Playwright Tom Murphy
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June 13th Chef and Ballymaloe matriarch Myrtle Allen
August 4th Fiddler Tommy Peoples
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September 19th TV presenter Bunny Carr
October 19th Former Tyrone Guthrie Centre director Bernard Loughlin
October 25th Concert promoter John Reynolds
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November 7th Composer and musician Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
November 15th Singer Sonny Knowles
December 23rd Award-winning journalst and former Irish Times literary correspondent Eileen Battersby
International
January 5th Ray Thomas, mustachioed flautist from the Moody Blues
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January 15th British actor Peter Wyngarde, best known as the camp sleuth Jason King in the series of the same name
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January 22nd Novelist Ursula K LeGuin, author of the Earthsea series
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January 24th Mark E Smith, leader of seminal Manchester band The Fall
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February 4th Actor John Mahoney, who played Frasier's dad, Martin, in the US sitcom
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February 21st Evangelist Billy Graham
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March 11th Comedian Ken Dodd
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March 14th Physicist Stephen Hawking
April 2nd South African anti-apartheid activist and politician Winnie Mandela
April 5th English darts champion Eric Bristow
April 13th Film director Milos Forman
April 17th Former US first lady Barbara Bush
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April 20th Swedish DJ Avicii
April 21st Verne Troyer, best known as Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies
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May 13th Actor Margot Kidder, best known as Lois Lane in the Superman movies
May 14th Tom Wolfe, author of The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities
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May 22nd Philip Roth, author of Portnoy's Complaint
June 28th American author Harlan Ellison
June 29th Comic book writer and artist Steve Ditko
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August 16th Soul singer Aretha Franklin
August 25th US senator John McCain
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September 6th Actor Burt Reynolds
November 12th Marvel Comics maestro Stan Lee
November 30th Former US president George HW Bush
December 6th Buzzcocks singer Pete Shelley