William Kirby Sullivan (1822–1890) was an Irish philologist, chemist, historian, Irish nationalist, educationalist and a passionate promoter of Irish industrial development. He was most notable for his scholarship promoting the literary history and culture of Ireland. He was widely referenced by researchers such as scientist William Grove,[1] jurist and historian Henry Maine[2] and ethnographer and historian Jeremiah Curtin, who visited him in his Irish sojourn of 1887.[3]