16 May: Famous Brendans

Today is St Brendan's day. Brendan is an Irish masculine given name meaning prince or king. Here are 10 famous Brendans.

1. Brendan of Clonfert: early Irish saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is also referred to as Brendan the Navigator, Brendan the Voyager, Brendan the Anchorite, Brendan the Bold. He is mainly known for his legendary voyage to find to find the “Isle of the Blessed” which is sometimes referred to as “Saint Brendan’s Island”.

2. Saint Brendan of Birr: Monk and later an abbot in the 6th century. He is known as "St Brendan the Elder" to distinguish him from his contemporary and friend St Brendan the Navigator.

3. Brendan Behan: Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, named by Irish Central as one of the greatest Irish writers of all time.

4. Brendan Coyle: British-Irish actor who played Mr Bates, the valet, in Downton Abbey.

5. Brendan Fraser: Canadian-American actor who starred in The Mummy series of films.

6. Brendan: the main male character of Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

7. Sir Brendan Foster: British long-distance runner, athletics commentator and road race organiser, who founded the Great North Run.

8. Brendan Gleeson: Irish actor and film director, best known for playing Alastor Moody in the Harry Potter films.

9. Brendan Murray: Irish singer and former member of the Irish boy band HomeTown. He represented Ireland in the Eurovision song contest 2017 with the song Dying to Try but failed to qualify for the final. He competed in The X Factor (UK) in 2018, finishing fifth.

10. Brendan Brady: fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Emmett J. Scanlan.

Character birthday

Billy the Kid, aka William Vendetta, a member of the notorious Vendetta gangster family in New York. He appears to be a fresh faced, innocent kid into skateboarding, baseball and computer gaming. However, He was groomed by his brothers from an early age to become an active member of the Alliance. Although still at school, he is already part of the gang, taking advantage of his innocent looks to take people in. None of his schoolmates or teachers have any idea that he swaps his baseball bat for a revolver when he gets out of school.