By John Roche, Chairman Castleisland District Heritage
Kenny first came to prominence when he was elected chairman/president of the fledgling Castleisland branch of the National Land League. This followed a monster gathering in Main Street on (date) Oct., 1880, chaired from the Crown Hotel balcony by the famous Land League priest, Fr Arthur Murphy.
This event was preceded a year earlier by the founding of the Castleisland Moonlighters. This was a secret society of young men from the town and surrounds, who, on joining, took an oath of allegiance to their captain. The captain was a young man from the town – Bob Finn, and their specific purpose was to stamp out Land Grabbing (the term ‘grabber’ was applied to the person who agreed to take over an evicted farm after the incumbent was ejected).
The Moonlighters’ logic was that if a new tenant was prohibited from taking an evicted farm, the landlord would think twice about evicting tenants who had just landed in hard times. No allowance was made for any of multiple reasons why a tenant could not meet their commitment on a particular year.
The Moonlighter Society was having huge success in preventing ‘grabbing’ in 1880, and as both combined, word of their success spread like wildfire. Branches were soon formed in almost every parish in Munster causing the British government to hastily pass the Coercion Act. The first target was the disturbers of Castleisland.
In March 1882, the authorities swooped on Castleisland and arrested and interned without trial a large number of young men, fourteen or more, known leaders of both organisations – the first time internment without trial used by Britain anywhere in their dominions.
Among those leaders interned was P D Kenny, who was interned in both Limerick and Kilmainham jails. When he was released in September 1881, he returned to a hero’s welcome, first by a gathering at Gortatlea Railway Station and then by a crowd of some three thousand gathered at Castleisland railway station.
He was raised on the shoulders of the people and chaired through the Main Street to the Land League Rooms (then the Parish Hall in Church Street):
The procession was a picturesque one as it was literally a moving grove whose foliage was variegated by banners, bannerettes and portraits of heroes and martyrs and whose foliage trembled to the soul, inspiring notes of the music of the bands … From a window of the League Room, Mr Kenny returned thanks to the people. His appearance was a signal for a long continued outburst of cheers.[1]
The following is an illustration of Kenny’s representation of the people which occurred in March 1882 at the weekly meeting of the Tralee Board of Guardians. A number of people from Castleisland had applied for outdoor relief, including a woman named Ellen Burke who resided near the town. Mr Kenny proposed that she get 20s per week:
Chairman: (Lt Col W Rowan JP): Is this woman in the occupation of a farm?
Relieving Officer Hickey: She is
Chairman: I won’t sign this order
Kenny: For what reason?
Chairman: She is in occupation of a farm
Kenny: That is no reason. How many persons are in the possession and are badly off?
Chairman: She is paying the rates
Kenny: That’s no reason why she should not be in distress
Chairman: I differ from you in a legal point of view
Kenny: This is unquestionably a case that requires relief as much as any case that came before the board today. The young man who was arrested was the support of a mother and nine children. He is taken away and locked up and yet no relief is afforded to them
Chairman: You can sign relief for them if you like
Kenny: I will sign the relief. It is a great hardship[2]
Sadly for Mr P D Kenny however, his status went from hero to zero in an instant because of one unfortunate innocent action on his part, as will be shown.
Shooting of Herbert
On 30 March 1882, a local despised and despicable land agent and magistrate, Arthur Edward Herbert, was gunned down at Lisheenbawn Cross as he arrogantly walked home to Currow. The police drew a complete blank on the assailant or assailants, and after arresting a few young men with no evidence to back it up, they were all released and the murder went unsolved.
Later in the year, two completely innocent men, Sylvester Poff and his cousin, 23-year-old James Barrett, were arrested for the murder of a local farmer, Thomas Browne. Both were convicted in December 1882 and hanged in January 1883 for a murder they could not have committed. It has been suggested that Poff and Barrett were scapegoats for the Herbert murder.[3]
The following year, on 8 September 1884, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the infamous Earl Spencer, decided to make a stop in Castleisland as he brought his army entourage from Killarney to Listowel.[4]
A large crowd assembled in the town to hiss their hatred of him following his refusal to commute the death sentences of Poff and Barrett. His bodyguards had to draw their sabres to intimidate the people of Pound Road who they feared were about to charge towards ‘his excellency.’
The magnificent church in Castleisland was at this time a work in progress, and nearing completion. Spencer’s ‘lackies’ brought ‘his excellence’ down to view this fine building. P D Kenny strolled with a companion to view the ‘carry-on’ and on entering the church, was recognised by a magistrate among the party named Considine, who had recently fined Mr Kenny in his court. Considine walked up towards Kenny and introduced him to the Lord Lieutenant. Kenny had the misfortune, in an unwitting moment of thoughtlessness, surprise or weakness, to accept the proffered hand.
So went with that handshake his reputation and his standing in the community. He was virtually boycotted. He wrote a letter to the Kerry Sentinel expressing his sorrow and offering his apologies. He asked for understanding, but unfortunately his good standing in the community was never restored.[5]
However, he continued to farm and rear his family at his residence, Ballymacadam, a house which pre-dates the Famine and is believed to have been built from stone from Ballymacadam Castle, a Fitzgerald fortification which stood in the vicinity.
Kenny was by all accounts an excellent, progressive farmer, and had a limestone quarry and lime kilns on the farm. Patrick Daniel Kenny died at Ballymacadam on 6 June 1902. For all his public deeds during his lifetime, his death appears to have gone unnoticed in the press.
A New Century Dawns
At about the turn of the century, a development in a neighbouring farm was to change the Kenny family for ever. Dowling, Kenny’s neighbour, was served with a notice of eviction by the landlord and tried to negotiate a settlement with the Land Agent, the infamous Samuel Murray Hussey.[6] Dowling moved his livestock to his sister’s farm west of the town while negotiations were ongoing. He failed to reach a settlement however, and sold his stock before emigrating to America.[7]
The agent installed an ‘emergency man’ to take care of the farm – a man named Gerald Cooney from Limerick.[8] He was joined by his sister Margaret (Maggie) who, according to local lore, set her sights on John Patrick Kenny, son of P D Kenny. The Cooney family were Protestant, an additional barrier to the ‘emergency’ tag for a young Catholic farmer in those troubled times. It was said that John Kenny resisted Maggie’s advances until they met at a dance in a local house – “after that he couldn’t be kept away from her.”
They married and their children were reared Protestant. The record shows that they were schooled with the children of another local – later tragic family of Protestants – the Andersons. However, it would appear that the Kennys were just a normal family within the community though local lore has it that Maggie Kenny was an opportunist who converted to the Protestant religion to raise her social status.[9]
The year 1924 was an Annus Horribilis for the Kenny household and effectively the end of the Ballymacadam Kennys. In March of that year, the close of the Civil War period, John Patrick Kenny advertised the sale of his farm at Ballymacadam which was duly sold.[10] His son, Patrick Gerald Kenny (‘Eric’), who had joined the Republican Movement as a Volunteer in the Castleisland Company of the 7th Battalion, was at this time interned in Gormanston Camp. He died in Dublin a few months later, on 15 May 1924.[11] He was buried in the Republican Grave in Kilbannivane cemetery.[12]
At about this period, there was rumour of a brutal murder in the Kenny house, and talk of a body being horribly disposed of.
Soon after, the Kenny family departed from Ballymacadam and went to reside in Killarney, evidently buying into a business at the Innisfallen Hotel in Main Street. It is remembered how their household belongings were piled high on their horse and cart but were caught by a wind at Farranfore, and scattered along the roadside.
A century later, the murder rumour remains a mystery, but a local farmer living a quarter of a mile away recalled being told that the Gardaí came as far as his house with sniffer dogs, searching for bones. There are different theories as to what really happened in the Kenny household, one more gruesome than the other.[13]
In 1927, the new owner advertised the farm for sale once again,[14] though a sale did not materialise.[15]
A rumour circulated down the years that a room in the house was left vacant, and on checking with the present owner, it was confirmed that the floorboards had been removed from that particular upstairs room. None of the siblings of two generations of the new owners reared there were ever allowed to enter it.[16] Rumours of blood on the walls of a haunted room there persist to this day.
The family of Patrick Daniel Kenny
Patrick Daniel Kenny was born c1826, birthplace not known. He married in Castleisland on 31 January 1856 to Elizabeth Griffin, sister of Rev John Griffin, CC, Tralee.[17] Patrick and Elizabeth had at least nine children including three sons.[18] Sadly, Elizabeth Griffin Kenny died at Ballymacadam following childbirth on 10 October 1879. She was aged 48.
Her son, John Patrick Kenny, who operated the Kenny Quarry, was the only son to marry, to Margaret Cooney, his Protestant neighbour.[19] They married in about 1902, and had six known children, viz, Volunteer Patrick Gerald Kenny, born in 1903; Elizabeth Lilian Kenny, born in 1904 who in 1918 was presented with a gold locket for collecting 1400 eggs for wounded soldiers, and was married on 8 March 1931 in New York to Clifford A De Groff of Brooklyn;[20] St John Vincent Kenny born in 1906, who married Elizabeth Horgan of Millstreet in New York on 29 June 1930[21]; Jeremiah St G Kenny born in 1907[22]; Annabella (or Annabelle) Kenny (1909-1987) who emigrated to New York in 1929 and married into the Carmody family and Margaret Valentine Kenny, born at Ballymacadam on 1 February 1912, who sailed on the Dresden to her sister Lilian in America in 1930.[23]
In 1927, on his entry into the USA, St John Vincent Kenny gave his father’s address as ‘Innisfail Hotel, Killarney.’[24] His sister, Annabella Kenny, also recorded Killarney on her entry into America in 1929, giving her address in Ireland as Main Street. In 1930, Margaret Valentine Kenny gave the name of her sole surviving relation in Ireland as her father, John P Kenny, Church Place, Killarney.
The record shows that 73-year-old John P Kenny died at Killarney District Hospital on 5 October 1945,[25] and his widow, Margaret Cooney Kenny, at St Columbanus Home, Killarney on 29 July 1963. She was 84 years of age.[26]
It is not known what gave rise to the rumours of murder in the Kenny residence, but local people believed firmly that murder was committed in the house. It is believed that nobody has entered that room since, and it has been kept closed for almost a century.
It is a mystery that remains unsolved.
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[1] Kerry Independent, 12 September 1881. The Kerry Evening Post (17 September 1881) reported the event differently: ‘Like a cur which after being whipped for its quarrelsome humour rejoins his canine associates more wicked and more savage than before, has Mr Patrick Daniel Kenny revisited his native county. Released from gaol he slunk home and remained quiet until his former companions crowded howling around him and succeeded in again drawing forth that savage spirit which the ‘felon’s den’ of the well fed, martyred Land Leaguers had failed to tame.’ [2] Kerry Independent, 9 March 1882. [3] Castleisland District Heritage current awaits the outcome of its application for the Posthumous Pardons of Poff and Barrett. [4] http://www.odonohoearchive.com/poff-barrett-the-p-d-kenny-affair/ [5] http://www.odonohoearchive.com/poff-barrett-the-p-d-kenny-affair/ [6] Jeremiah O’Connor wrote of him, Samuel Murray Hussey lived out his old age in the Headley Mansion. He was the despot in the Big House – a dominating repellent brute! (http://www.odonohoearchive.com/words-will-not-come-a-tribute-to-jeremiah-joseph-oconnor-1877-1957/). [7] The late Patrick (Pat) O’Mahony (1923-2023), Lissanore, Castleisland who passed away on 18 August 2023 in his 100th year, often recalled this incident to Johnnie Roche, Chairman of Castleisland District Heritage, who writes: ‘Pat Mahony was a lifelong friend, and also a staunch supporter of Castleisland District Heritage since its inception. We note with sorrow his passing just nine months from his 100th birthday. RIP Pat. Pat had a family connection to the farm in the townland of Craggaunoonia as the incumbent, Mr Dowling, was his granduncle. Pat's telling of the incidents leading up to the arrival of the Cooneys as 'caretakers' of the farm, situated next to the Kenny farm, were as follows. Dowling got a notice of eviction and moved all of his livestock to his sister's farm at Lissanore. He then tried to reach an agreement with the landlord's agent but failed. He decided to emigrate to New York and left the farm unattended. For this reason, the agent was able to appoint a caretaker/emergencyman to the farm who probably escaped the wrath of the Land League/Moonlighters because there was no family locally trying to get reinstated. Gerald Cooney, who had come to the area as 'caretaker' to a farm a few miles to the east, failed to protect the landlord's cattle on that farm and the evicted family was restored to their holding. Gerald was joined by his sister Maggie, and the rest as they say is history.’ In 1883, Daniel Dowling received £25 compensation under the Crimes Act ‘for injuries sustained at Craganoonia on 6 March 1882.’ The event was reported at that time as follows: ‘A farmer was shot last night near Castleisland by a party of Moonlighters. About midnight a party of men numbering about forty, some of whom were armed and all disguised by having their faces covered with handkerchiefs, visited the house of a farmer named Daniel Dooling who resides at a place called Creganoonagh, about four miles from Castleisland. They surrounded the house, and one of the party asked in a loud voice to have the door opened. He repeated the demand, but not having received any response the door was burst in. Some of the party then entered the house, and one of them called on Daniel Dooling junior, to get out of bed. His father, whose name is Daniel also, resides in the house, but it appears that the son is tenant of the lands attached to it. Young Dooling got out of bed, came out of the room where he was sleeping and confronted the party. One of them asked him if he had paid his rent, and he said he had as well as all the other tenants on the property, of which Mr John De Bawley Blennerhassett is landlord. He further stated that he held out against paying the rent as long as he could, and did not do so until the landlord had consented to make a reduction of 30 per cent. One of the raiders then asked ‘What will we do with him?’ and another answered, ‘shoot him.’ One of the party, who appeared to direct the movements of the others, then directed Dooling to go out into the yard. He did so without hesitation. He was ordered to go on his knees and bend down his head by the individual who appeared in command. Dooling placed himself in the desired position, and the word was given to fire. Two reports were heard, and the unfortunate man was wounded in both thighs. A piece of flesh as large as a half a crown was torn away out of one of them by the shot, and several grains were lodged in the other thigh. One of the thighs was fractured, as the parties who fired the shots were only a few yards distant. The Moonlighters left after they fired the shots, and Dooling crawled into the house and found the other inmates terror-stricken. His father soon after drove to Castleisland for medical assistance, and Dr Harrold immediately went to the scene of this dastardly outrage. He found Dooling in a very exhausted state; but before performing any operation he thought it necessary to despatch a messenger for Dr W H Lawlor, Tralee. This gentleman has also gone to Dooling’s house, and it is probable that at least one of the unfortunate man’s legs will have to be amputated. No arrests have been made’ (Irish Examiner, 7 March 1882). Other reports: ‘A respectable young farmer named Daniel Dooling residing within two miles of the town on the De Bawley Blennerhassett property … about one o’clock in the morning a band of armed and disguised men knocked at the door of Dooling’s residence and demanded admittance but the door not having been opened, they forced it in and then proceeded to the room where Dooling and his wife were sleeping. The scoundrels directed him to dress, and proceeded to the farm yard. On arriving in the farm yard he was asked if he paid his rent. Dooling stated that he was served with a writ, and did not pay until he got thirty per cent reduction and was not charged any costs. He was then directed to hold down his head. The unfortunate man pleaded that several tenants on the property had paid before him, adding that Mrs Dooling was only after her confinement. The answer to this appeal was ‘We don’t care a damn. No rents must be paid until Parnell and Dillon are free.’ Then Dooling received a full charge of No 8 shot in the right thigh at a very short range. Some of the grains also penetrated the left thigh. The raiders then decamped. Dooling was attended during the day by Dr R Harrold, Castleisland, and Dr Hare, Tralee, who extracted portion of the shot. The unfortunate man is in a very critical condition and the shock to Mrs Dooling is considered very serious. The Hon Capt Plunket, RM, arrived by the midday train, and proceeded to the scene of the outrage’ (ibid). ‘Another diabolical outrage occurred near Castleisland at a farm known as ‘Creenagonock’ on Sunday night or Monday morning last. It would appear from the reports received that a large party of men surrounded the house of a young farmer named Daniel Dooling who little more than a year ago had been married, and on the auspicious occasion received an assignment of the interest in the farm as his marriage portion ‘to meet’ that of his wife’s. He had the manlihood to be plucky and honest enough to pay the rent which he had contracted to pay – high or low –but ‘Captain Moonlight’s’ party thought otherwise and visited the farm above mentioned, and having ascertained from the victim that he had paid his rent, on a reduction of 30 per cent, being made, brought him into his own farmyard, made him go on his knees, and then deliberately shot through both thighs, fortunately without breaking any bones. After further warning to the unfortunate young man the party departed, leaving the inmates of the house terror-stricken. Dr Harrold, as soon as the apparent danger was over, was sent for, and that gentleman thinking the case a serious one, solicited the assistance of Dr Lawlor, Surgeon to the County Infirmary, who promptly left Tralee for the scene of the occurrence. I am glad to state that it was not deemed necessary as in poor Riordan’s case to amputate the leg’ (Kerry Evening Post, 8 March 1882). ‘Four arrests were made on Wednesday in connection with the shooting of the young man Daniel Dooling, at Creeganoonagh, near Castleisland. The prisoners are Terence McMahon, tailor, Castleisland; Jeremiah Sullivan, farmer’s son; James Healy, labourer, and Michael McCarthy, labourer. They were brought before the local magistrates and remanded for eight days’ (Irishman, 11 March 1882). In 1898, Mrs Dooling [Dowling], ‘Craganoona,’ Castleisland applied to the local government board for outdoor relief. ‘The Board authorised the guardians to administer relief out of the workhouse in food or fuel to such destitute persons as they may consider require it whether in the occupation of land or not for a period of two months’ (Kerry Evening Post, 26 March 1898). ‘Craggannonia’ farm containing more than 102 acres was up for auction in 1900 and 1901, and was ‘in possession of the landlord, who has come to an agreement through his agents, Messrs Huseey, Denny and Huggard, with the late tenant Mr Daniel Dowling junior to have above interest disposed of.’ Note, Jeremiah King, in his History of Kerry, provides a list of the townlands of the parish of Ballincuslane (Kerry Evening Post, 22 June 1912) in which he gives the meaning of Craggaunoonia as ‘the green hillock.’ [8] Gerald Cooney worked as an emergencyman/caretaker for Land Agent Samuel Murray Hussey and later William Huggard. He seems to have had a residence at Ballyard. [9] In the Census of Ireland 1901 21-year-old Margaret Cooney, housekeeper, is recorded with her brother Gerald Cooney, caretaker, at Cragganoonia. Their religion is given as Church of Ireland. Their mother, Anne Cooney, a Roman Catholic, is recorded in the Census of Ireland 1911 at Ballymacadam. [10] Liberator (Tralee), 15 March 1924. ‘Maurice T Prendiville has been favoured with instructions from Mr John P Kenny to sell by public auction at Castleisland on Tuesday the 25th day of March 1924 at 2 o’clock pm His interest in the highly valuable farm, dwelling-house, and out-offices situate at Ballymacadam. The lands, which are of the very best quality, are divided into suit-commodious out-offices on the contain 85 acres [sic] or thereabouts, statute measure, the annuity payable to the Irish Land Commission being £43 3s 6d. Poor Law Valuation, £71 10s 0d. There is a comfortable two-storey slated dwelling house together with commodious out-offices on the lands which are situate about one mile from the important market town of Castleisland. There is an abundant supply of limestone in the lands which are in excellent condition and well watered; also three lime kilns with a burning capacity of 300 barrels per day. The dwelling house is situate convenient to the County Road which runs beside the farm. The Auctioneer desires to direct special attention to this sale which affords a very rare opportunity to those who wish to acquire a really first class farm which can be used equally well for tillage or pasture … Thos O’Neill Solr having carriage of sale, Castleisland.’ It has been suggested that the stone used to build the lime kilns was taken from Ballymacadam Castle. The farm was purchased by David Paul Herlihy, Mountfalvey. [11] Patrick Gerald Kenny otherwise known as Eric Kenny contracted Tuberculosis after going on hunger strike in Gormanston Camp. ‘We respectfully tender our sincere sympathy to the relatives of Volunteer Eric Kenny of Castleisland who died at the Meath Hospital, Dublin last week. We have had the pleasure of knowing Mr Kenny and we have never known a more straightforward and sincere young man. With regret, we must record our belief, based on some knowledge of the circumstances, that his early death is a result of his long internment. It should be a warning of the possible effects of keeping hundreds of political prisoners in the jails and camps long after all danger of a renewal of civil strife has passed’ (Kerry News, 21 May 1924). [12] http://www.odonohoearchive.com/the-republican-monument-kilbannivane-castleisland/ [13] Among a number of theories that arose was that Kenny was boiled in a potato cauldron used for boiling pig feed, or that the body was taken by horse and cart in the early hours to the tide at Banna. People also said the body was burned in a commercial lime kiln on the land which was demolished in about 2005, also that there was a well near the roadside which was closed up in the early 1900s after a child drowned in there. The story was that the land near it subsided, and it was supposed a body had been buried there. [14] Kerryman, 26 March 1927. ‘Highly important & attractive auction of a magnificent farm of land with dwelling-house and out-offices. Maurice T Prendiville has been favoured with instructions from Mr David P Herlihy to sell by Public Auction at Castleisland on Saturday 2nd April 1927 at the hour of 2 o’clock His interest in his farm, dwelling-house and out-offices, Ballymacadam. The lands, which are well fenced and watered, and laid out in conveniently sized fields, contain 87 acres 3 roods and 30 perches, of which 74 acres 3 roods and 5 perches are held subject to a half-yearly instalment of £10 10s 2d payable to the Irish Land Commission, and the remaining 13 acres and 25 perches are held free of rent for ever. The Poor Law Valuation of the entire lands is £71 10s. There is a comfortable two storey slated dwelling-house, containing 7 rooms and kitchen, also slated out-offices to accommodate 30 cows and 4 horses, also slated piggery and corrugated iron turf shed, and a magnificent corrugated iron hay shed. Three limekilns and three limestone quarries and a splendid supply of growing timber on the lands. The main road runs through the lands. They are situate within one mile of the important fair and market town of Castleisland, where there are first class Convent and National Schools. The Auctioneer desires to direct special attention to this sale, which affords a rare opportunity to those who wish to acquire a highly valuable and ideal holding … David Roche, solicitor having carriage of sale, Castleisland.’ [15] The lands remain in the family of the purchaser, David Paul Herlihy. [16] David Paul Herlihy had four daughters, Ellie, Bridie, Mary and Joannie who were reared at Ballymacadam. Mary married John O’Connor from Currow. Her son Davy recently recalled how his mother never entered a locked upstairs room in the house, instructing him to do likewise, for ‘a man was killed in there.’ The room remains locked, and is evidently without floorboards. [17] Patrick and Elizabeth were godparents of John Griffin, son of Denis Griffin and Catherine Mahony of Kilberehert, Castleisland who married in 1868. It is worth noting that a Margaret Kenny from Ballymacadam who married John ‘Sean Bui’ O’Connor of Currans (and later Gortloss) may have been a sister of P D Kenny. John and Margaret had seven children, including Bryan O’Connor, born in Farrandoctor, Currans in 1838, who went on to establish O’Connor Moffatt & Co in San Francisco in 1860 – the predecessor of Macy’s San Francisco. Reference courtesy Seamus Fleming.. [18] Catherine Kenny born 1856, Jeremiah Kenny (1858-1880), Margaret Kenny (born 1859, married in 1886 to Florence O’Connor, draper, son of John K O’Connor, had at least seven children John O’Connor 1886, Mary O’Connor 1887, Patrick O’Connor 1889, Joseph O’Connor 1890, Jeremiah (Darby) O’Connor 1892, Florence O’Connor 1893, Kerry Michael O’Connor 1895), Ann Kenny born 1862, Hanora Kenny born 1865, Mary Kenny born 1867, John Patrick Kenny born 1871, Michael Kenny (1873-1908), Helen Mary Kenny born 1875, who married into the Coffey family. Special thanks to Martine Brennan for genealogical research. [19] On 23 September 1909, a 26-year-old man, Michael O’Connell was killed in an accident at the quarry. The quarry was closed in about 1912 for a period due to the high cost of wages and insurance. It is said that the stone from this quarry was used in the construction of Ballymacadam Castle of which nothing remains. [20] Evidently Clifford Allen De Groff, widower, who was married to Cherrie Spencer (1890-1929). In 1930, Elizabeth was living at 66 Morton Street, New York. A Petition for Citizenship (no: 28166) dated 22 September 1933 gives her residence as 46 No, Arlington Ave, E Orange, N J, and her occupation as stenographer. Her last residence in Ireland was Fermoy. She declared her intention to become a US citizen on 14 May 1928. Research courtesy Martine Brennan. [21] Margaret Horgan emigrated to America in 1927 and was naturalized on 11 August 1938 at New York, Cert No: 4317664. In Kenny’s Petition for Naturalization in America made on 24 October 1939, he gave his name as John Vincent Kenny known also as Vincent Kenny, address 4 W. 109th St, New York. His occupation was elevator operator. He stated he had entered America on 22 February 1927 on the vessel SS Alaunia. His last residence in Ireland was in Killarney. His application was witnessed by his sisters, Elizabeth Kenny, housewife, 4 W. 109th St, New York and Annabelle Kenny, beautician, 623 W. 142nd St, New York. In another document, he named his father John P Kenny, Innisfail [Inisfallen] Hotel, [Main St] Killarney. In the Census of 1950, John Vincent Kenny was resident in New York with his wife Elizabeth and 19-year-old daughter Margaret M Kenny, born in New York City on 27 May 1931. Research courtesy Martine Brennan. [22] It is remembered locally that two men, descendants of Kenny, visited the Kenny farmstead from England in the summers of the 1960s over a period of about three years and would be invited by the new owners into the house for tea. One may have been a policeman. The men would say that a gun used to be hidden in the top of the pillar of the hayshed (since demolished) in the farmyard. Jeremiah Kenny may therefore have gone to England. [23] The birth was registered more than four years later, on 13 July 1916, ‘on the authority of the Registrar General.’ [24] The Innisfallen Hotel (formerly the Kenmare Arms) was located at 31 Main Street, near Kenmare Place/Bank Place, Killarney. It was purchased by James Coghlan of London in 1862. During its history it was associated with nationalist MP Jeremiah Daniel Sheehan (1847-1929). Mrs Mary Sheehan died in 1906, at which time it was remarked that ‘Mrs Sheehan of the Innisfallen Hotel, whose husband, Mr Jeremiah D Sheehan, was foremost in every national movement in the district, possessed many excellent qualities of head and heart, and her kindness and generosity to the poor and her employees were observed in a marked manner.’ James Egan Esq instructed the auction of the hotel in October 1915 when it was described as ‘the oldest established hotel in the Lake District of Killarney … it contains a large bar with entrance from the Main Street; large reception hall, large coffee room, dining room, smoking room, drawing room, 30 bedrooms, kitchen fitted with all modern improvements for cooking; 2 bath rooms with hot and cold water, 3 WCs all fitted with electric light. The out offices consist of stabling for 12 horses, large coach house, bottling stores, etc with splendid yard with entrance from the adjoining lane.’ Its sale was advertised at various times in the 1920s. It was up for sale by Private Treaty in May of 1920, the particulars of sale noted a Smoke Room, Snuggeries, Telephone Box, large kitchen with two ranges, Drying Rooms, Commercial Room, Fowl House, Turf House and Coal House. In a notice of Charitable Bequests published in May 1924, Mrs Annie Wade was described as ‘formerly of the Innisfallen Hotel Killarney and late of the International Hotel Killarney.’ In December 1924, the National Bank Limited instructed the sale of the Innisfallen Hotel, ‘The premises have a frontage on the Main Street of about 32 feet or thereabouts and they have a depth of 355 feet or thereabouts and extend from the Main Street back to Lord Kenmare’s Demesne Wall’(Kerryman, 13 December 1924). It was advertised for sale again in April 1929 with details of four lots including ’plot of ground in the Main Street in the town of Killarney with the dwelling house and buildings thereon known as the Innisfallen Hotel held under lease for ever dated the 25th day of October 1797’ (Kerryman, 20 April 1929). [25] The death certificate records his status as ‘married.’ A Statutory Notice to Creditors in the Goods of John P Kenny of Church Place, Main Street, Killarney, published in March 1946, revealed Letters of Administration had been granted to an Administratrix and that Kenny’s estate would be distributed according to claims after 20th April 1946 (The Kerryman, 30 March 1946). The solicitor was John O’Shea, Solicitor for Administratrix, College Square, Killarney. [26] Mrs Kenny’s residence was recorded as 6 Sullivan’s Place, Killarney, and she was described as the widow of a shopkeeper. Research courtesy Martine Brennan. It is not known if the couple remained together after they left Ballymacadam.
