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Kenny Family Collection
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Newspaper cutting from the Evening Herald concerning a campaign to make St Patrick's Day a national holiday.

Newspaper cutting includes a report of a meeting of the National Holiday Committee campaigning for St Patrick’s Day to be made a national holiday. Those reported as present included Kevin J Kenny. Cutting also includes letter received from Archbishop of Dublin, William J Walsh in support of the campaign.

Note from Roger Casement to 'the Manager' of The Nationist newspaper.

Undated note from Roger Casement to 'The Manager, The Nationist, 53 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin'. Note reads: 'Dear Sir, I should be obliged if you would now send my copy of The Nationist to the Quay, Ballycastle, Antrim, instead of to the English address hitherto given. Yours faithfully, Roger Casement.'

The note is handwritten on headed paper from Exchange Station Hotel (Lanc & York Rly), Liverpool [the address is scored out]. The Nationist, edited by Tom Kettle, was a weekly newspaper that appeared in 1905 and 1906. Kenny was the business manager of the newspaper.

Note from Major-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston CB DSO to the 29th Division of the British Army on the eve of the landings at Gallipoli, 25 April 1915.

Undated printed page which reads:

'Personal note from Major-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston, C.B., D.S.O., to each man of the 29th Division on the occasion of their first going into action together. The Major-General Commanding congratulates the division on being selected for an enterprise the success of which will have a decisive effect on the War. The eyes of the world are upon us and your deeds will live in history. To us now is given an opportunity of avenging our friends and relatives who have fallen in France and Flanders. Our comrades there willingly gave their lives in thousands and tens of thousands for our King and Country, and by their glorious courage and dogged tenacity they defeated the invaders and broke the German offensive. We must also be prepared to suffer hardships, privations, thirst, and heavy losses, by bullets, by shells, by mines, by drowning. But if each man feels, as is true, that on him individually, however small or however great his task, rests the success or failure of the expedition, and therefore the honour of the empire and the welfare of his own folk at home, we are certain to win through to a glorious victory. In Nelson’s time it was England, now it is the whole British Empire, which expects each man of us will do his duty. A. H-W.' Major-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston was commander of the British 29th Division on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915. 'Keep this and never loose [sic] it' is written in pencil underneath Hunter-Weston's message. Another lightly written and mostly illegible note in pencil is also visible on the reverse of the page.

British Army transcribed signals from the landings at Gallipoli, 25-26 April 1915.

Includes four '"C" Form[s], Messages and Signals' [transcribed signals] relating to units of the 86th Brigade who would have been on active service as part of the 29th Division on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915 [see file C2/1/2/2/3 for further context]. The forms include handwritten signals in pencil, with messages such as: 'Send reinforcements. Urgently required. I have no men.'; 'I am unable to hold out. Send reinforcements. Urgent.' and 'No answer to last message. The wire must be cut. I have sent patrol. Firing is very near.'

Some of the signals are signed 'J Murphy' who Colum Kenny suggested may have been Kevin J Kenny's brother-in-law, Jack (John) Murphy.

Pro-Home Rule postcard featuring images of John Redmond and other notable Irish and British political figures.

Two copies of postcard featuring a photograph of John Redmond surrounded by a garland and two shamrocks on a green background. Above the image is printed 'Éire Saor' [Free Ireland] and below the images is written 'home rule', and also two verses in Irish entitled 'Curaí'. A tab enables one to raise the image of Redmond off the card allowing a folded strip of six photographs to drop down. The strip includes photographs of following: William E Gladstone, Charles Stewart Parnell, HH Asquith, the 'Old Irish Parliament' [Parliament Building, College Green], Joseph Devlin and John Dillon. Beneath the portraits are three verses of ‘A Nation Once Again’. Postcard printed by Valentine & Sons Limited, Dundee.

Leaflet requesting prayers in memory of the rebels who were killed during and following the Easter Rising, 1916.

Leaflet reads as follows: 'Lá na Marbh, 1916, All Souls’ Day, 1916. Your prayers are earnestly requested for the repose of the souls of the following Irishmen who were executed by Military Law this year: [includes list of 16 names] Also for the repose of the souls of the following men who were killed whilst fighting for Ireland, during Easter Week, 1916: [includes list of 52 names] Go nDeinidh dia trocaire ar a nAnamaibh'.

Nationality, volume 1, numbers 32, 34 and 36

File includes issues published on 22 January 1916 (volume 1, Number 32), 5 February 1916 (volume 1, Number 34) and 19 February 1916 (volume 1, Number 36). Address: 12 D’Olier Street, Dublin. Edited by Arthur Griffith. Proprietor: Sean MacDermott. Price: one penny.

Flyer for an address by Eóin Mac Néill [Eóin MacNeill] and concert at the Antient Concert Rooms.

Two copies of a flyer advertising a concert in the Antient Concert Rooms, [52 Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street), Dublin] at which the flyer states, Eóin Mac Néill, President of the Irish Volunteers, will deliver 'an important address' on 'the present crisis'. The concert date is given as 'Sunday Night, April 9th' meaning that the flyer is most likely from 1916.

Design for the front-page of a periodical called Listen!

Hand-drawn design on a scrap of torn paper. Subtitle included in the design describes the periodical as 'Ireland’s best story paper'. Part of what appears to be a printed letter is visible on the reverse of the page and is signed off with the printed name 'T.M. Kettle' [Thomas Michael Kettle].

Petition to King George V from the Protestant British-Israel League regarding 'the British mission to the Pope'

Stencil copy petition to King George V from the Protestant British-Israel League regarding Sir Henry Howard's role as the first formal British envoy to the Vatican in over 300 years. Petition warns of a conspiracy to overthrow the Protestant succession and restore a 'Roman Catholic Dynasty' in England. Also warns that the placing the Home Rule Bill on the Statute Book will make Ireland 'a base for Jesuit wirepullers and plotters in the cause of subverting Your Majesty's Throne and Authority'. Lists examples of 'manifestations of Divine displeasure' when past concessions to Rome have been made by the British government, such as the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland (29 May 1914) following the passing of the Home Rule Bill, and that the 'Royal assent to the Bill was followed by the sinking of the three Cruisers “Hogue, Cressy and Aboukir.”’ The petitioners are listed as Agusta Cook, President; Heywood Smith MA, MD, Vice President, and CW Burge, Honorary Treasurer.

The petition is undated, but references in the text to the '[Air] Raid' on [Great] Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, [Norfolk, UK] (19 January 1915), and Sir Henry Howard's mission to the Vatican, dates it to between 19 January 1915 and August 1916 (when Howard retired).

The Irish Nation, volume 1, numbers 17 and 48.

Includes issues published on 14 October 1916 (volume 1, number 17) and 19 May 1917 (volume 1, number 48). Issue number 17 features an article about the lack of rebuilding taking place in Dublin city centre following the 1916 Easter Rising, and includes a sardonic reference to the rebuilding of the Kenny's Advertising Agency building, suggesting this is related to 'big cheques' from the 'profitable business' of 'Recruitment in Ireland'. See sub-series 'Recruitment Controversy for further context about this topic. Issue number 48 includes the banner: 'Organ of the Repeal League and Independence Association'. Price: one penny.

'Documents presented to the U.S. Government on behalf of the Irish Republic'.

Fragile single-sided printed page, possibly from a newspaper or pamphlet. Document details the declaration presented to the USA Government on behalf of the Irish Republic by Dr Patrick McCartan in July 1917. Includes the complete declaration signed by Irish nationalist leaders such as 'Edward de Valera' [sic], Eóin MacNéill and 'Des Fitzgerald', and a 'note' by McCartan addressed to the President and Congress of the United States. Also includes an '[e]xtract from the trial of A. Stack' [?Austin Stack].

McCartan would go on to serve as the Irish Provisional Government envoy to the USA, 1918-1920. Charles Tansill writes in America and the Fight for Irish Freedom 1866-1922: An Old Story Based Upon New Data (New York: Devin-Adair Company, 1957) that the signatories of the declaration had been released from prison (following their part in the Easter Rising) on 18 June 1917 as a gesture of good will to American public opinion. Tansill notes that the statement was written by MacNéill upon their release and taken by Patrick McCartan to the USA, where it was presented at the White House on 23 July 1917.

Belfast Boycott

Notes and leaflet relating to the ‘Belfast Boycott’. Dáil Éireann introduced this boycott in September 1920 in response to rioting in Derry and Belfast and discrimination against the Catholic community in Northern Ireland. It would appear from the items in this sub-series that Kevin J Kenny was concerned with ensuring that the activities of his business did not go against the boycott.

Government Notices

Public notices created by the British government, and subsequently Dáil Éireann, for advertising in newspapers and other publications.

Mid-Week Pictorial with image of Arthur Griffith on front cover.

Mid-Week Pictorial was an illustrated weekly newspaper supplement published by The New York Times. Includes a full-page photograph of Arthur Griffith on the front cover, describing him as the 'Head of the Irish Free State'. Inside is a one-page feature about Ireland including photographs of five government ministers: George Gavan Duffy, Richard Mulcahy, Michael Collins, Eamon J Duggan, WT Cosgrave.

Colum Kenny purchased this journal from a bookshop in the USA in March 2010, through www.abebooks.com. File includes the relevant section of Colum Kenny’s original finding aid for the collection that notes that Mid-Week Pictorial was purchased from www.abebooks.com, the shipping manifest for the item, and the address of the bookshop that the newspaper was purchased from.

Issues of The Freeman's Journal and The Evening Standard published following the destruction of their respective printing presses.

File includes: two reduced single-sheet-formatted versions of the Freeman’s Journal from 30 and 31 March 1922, and a four-page single-sided-sheet version of the Evening Telegraph (Dublin) from 1 April 1922. The Anti-Treaty IRA destroyed the printing presses of both newspapers in March 1922.

Note discussing the proposed cessation of Civil War hostilities

Stencil copy of typed single page. Lists conditions upon which a cessation of hostilities may occur. One of the conditions includes the '[d]eclaration of [Éamon] De Valera and [WT] Cosgrove [sic] that unless requested by two-thirds of new Parliament neither will accept office of head of State.'

To-morrow, volume 1, numbers 1 and 2.

Two issues of the literary magazine edited by Henry Francis Montgomery Stuart and Cecil Salkeld featuring contributions from Irish poets, writers and artists including WB Yeats, Lennox Robinson and Liam O’Flaherty. Volume 1, number 1 from August 1924 includes: ‘The Madonna of Slieve Dun’ by Lennox Robinson; ‘A Red Petticoat’ by Liam O’Flaherty; ‘Leda and the Swan’ by WB Yeats; ‘The Japanese Pine’ and ‘Just Now’ by Charlotte Arthur; ‘Be a Trembling Petal’ by Henry Francis Montgomery Stuart; ‘“As I was Among the Captives”’ by Joseph Campbell; ‘The Principles of Painting’ (with illustration) by Cecil Salkeld; an editorial by Henry Francis Montgomery Stuart and Cecil Salkeld; ‘Sonnet’ by OF Fleck; ‘Why we Live’ by ‘“Sachka”’; ‘A Primitive’ by LK Emery; Colour by Margaret Barrington, and ‘Alba’ by RND Wilson.

Volume 1, number 2 from September 1924 includes: ‘Honore Dumier’ by Arthur Symons; ‘The Garden’ by ‘Sachka’; ‘Marriage Song’ and an untitled poem by Blanaid Salkeld; ‘Wet Loveliness’ and ‘The Horse-Breaker’ by FR Higgins; ‘Two Poems’ [‘An Etching’ and ‘Gifts’] by Charlotte Arthur; ‘An P’ [in the German language] by OJ Fleck; ‘The Sea’ by RND Wilson; ‘In the Hour before Dawn’ by Henry Francis Montgomery Stuart; ‘The Popular Road’ by Iseult Stuart; ‘The Principles of Painting’ [continued from volume 1, number 1] (and illustration) by Cecil Salkeld, and ‘The Tendencies of the Younger Irish Poetry’ by LK Emery.

The address of the journal publisher is given as 13 Fleet Street, Dublin in volume 1, number 1 and is given as Roebuck House, Clonskeagh, Dublin in volume 1, number 2. Price of the journal is six pence.

Correspondence

Correspondence mainly relating to Kevin J Kenny’s work as an advertising agency and commercial manager for Kenny’s Advertising Agency and other publications.

Kenny, Kevin

Images of the Muggeridge family.

File consists of a photograph of George Muggeridge and printouts of a scanned postcard and photograph. The photograph was originally included with letters sent by Grace Watt (née Muggeridge) to Colum and Catherine Kenny (see letter from Watt to Kenny dated 21 September 1988; item C2/3/3/1 (1). The printouts were likely created by Colum Kenny having scanned photographs and the postcard sent by Grace Watt. The original photograph and postcard are not included in the collection.

The faded black and white photograph of George shows him as a boy standing in the garden at 1 Herbert Terrace, Bray. A letter from Grace Watt (née Muggeridge) to Colum Kenny [see item C2/3/3/1 (1)] dated 21 September 1988 describes this photograph: 'Brother George among the cabbages in your garden!'

The postcard printout is from 'Mother' [?Elizabeth Clara Muggeridge] to 'Darling Daughter' [?Mabel Elizabeth Muggeridge] and is dated 26 May 1924. The image on the front of the postcard (of people sitting on the strand and swimming in the sea at Bray Beach] apparently includes members of the Muggeridge family according a handwritten annotation on the printout. The caption printed on the image is: 'The Sea Shore, Bray, Co. Wicklow'.

The photograph printout is a portrait of the Muggeridge family taken in a photographic studio. A typed note attached to the printout identifies the members of the family and the ages of the children in the image.

File also includes part of an envelope [in which the photograph of George Muggeridge was originally contained] with handwritten annotation [?Colum Kenny].

'Imperial Preference – Certificate of Origin E' form.

Form relates to the importation of a '[s]tandard 10 h.p. de luxe saloon [?motor car] by John G McEntagart, Director and Secretary, McEntagart Brothers Limited’. Some of the entries in the form are filled in with typed and handwritten text.

It is likely that this car was purchased by Kevin J Kenny from McEntagart Brothers Limited.

Personal mementoes

Personal items and mementoes relating to significant events or causes in Kevin J Kenny’s life.

Awarding of the Portuguese rank of Cavaleiro of the Military Order of Christ to Kevin J Kenny.

Includes a certificate (in Portuguese) conferring on Kevin John Kenny, honorary Vice Consul of Portugal, the rank of Cavaleiro of the Military Order of Christ. His name is inscribed incorrectly as ‘Kelvin’ on the certificate. Also includes an English translation of the certificate by the Portuguese Consulate in Dublin, and a black and white photograph of Kenny receiving the cross, which is the insignia of the order, from Dr Henrique Bacelar de Caldeira Queiroz, the Portuguese Consul. Standing between them is the apostolic nuncio, Most Rev Pascal Robinson.

Published material and memorabilia

Newspapers, magazines, postcards, flyers and other published documents mainly relating to Irish nationalism. It is possible that Kevin J Kenny worked as a commercial manager or advertising agent for some of the publications, and/or that his company, Kenny’s Press, published some of them. It is also very likely that Kevin simply collected the material in this series due to its historical significance.

Colum Kenny purchased and added some items to this series, such as item C2/1/3/13.

Letter from Jeremiah Newman, Bishop of Limerick, to Colum Kenny.

Newman replies to a letter from Kenny, which had included a copy of a book by Alan Watts [according to Colum Kenny, the book was most likely Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal (1974). Kenny sent Newman the letter and book in response to some reported comments made by Newman. The letter from Newman discusses Catholic attitudes to sex and warns Kenny about Alan Watts' writings on religion: 'I would like to warn you against getting too involved in that kind of literature'. According to Colum Kenny, Bishop Newman spoke about contraception and the relationship between church and state in an RTÉ interview broadcast on 30 March 1976.

RTÉ [Raidió Teilifís Éireann] television Irish Hospitals’ Sweepstake television documentary.

Series relates to three RTÉ television documentaries that Colum Kenny worked on as a researcher and producer. One of the sub-series relates to a documentary titled ‘The Tailor and Ansty’, broadcast in October 1978, and includes numerous letters from Seán Ó Faoláin, Eric Cross, and Nancy McCarthy-Allitt.

The other two sub-series relate to a documentary on the Irish Hospitals’ Sweepstake and a Frontline television programme on the sale of old national schools in the Beara Peninsula respectively. The sub-series on the Irish Hospitals’ Sweepstake is currently closed for access, while part of the sub-series on the Frontline programme is currently closed.

Letters from Eric Cross to Colum Kenny.

File consists of three letters (dated 28 July 1978; [September-October] 1978; and [November] 1978) mainly concerning Cross' book The Tailor and Ansty; Kenny's documentary and his attempt to find someone to interview who was critical of Cross' book; and an RTÉ dramatisation of the book which was broadcast on the same night as the documentary on 31 October 1978. File also includes a note by Cross about the 'unbanning' of the book [in the 1950s] and its reissue in 1964.

Letters from Nancy McCarthy-Allitt to Colum Kenny.

File consists of seven letters (dated 16 July 1978; 20 August 1978; 16 September [1978]; 1 October 1978; 7 November 1978; 18 December 1978; and 1 May 1980). McCarthy-Allitt was interviewed by Kenny for the documentary in 1978 and the letters concern her memories of her close friends Timothy (‘the Tailor’) and Anastasia ('Ansty') Buckley, arrangements for the interview, her praise for the finished documentary and Kenny's professionalism, and reaction to the documentary from customers in her chemist shop in Douglas, Cork. Other notable friends of McCarthy-Allitt mentioned in the letters include Seán O’Faoláin, Frank O’Connor and Seamus Murphy. File also includes a poem by O’Connor, 'In Memory of Timothy Buckley "The Tailor"', in McCarthy-Allitt's handwriting.

Some of the corresponding letters from Colum Kenny to McCarthy-Allitt are available in the Nancy McCarthy Collection, Archives Service, UCC Library, University College Cork.

Frontline television programme on the sale of old national schools in the Beara Peninsula by St Brendan’s Trust.

Sub-series relates to an RTÉ Frontline television programme broadcast on 1 February 1980 that was researched and presented by Colum Kenny. The programme dealt with allegations that St Brendan’s Trust (the Kerry Diocesan Trust) had acquired 17 national school properties in the Beara Peninsula and sold them against the wishes of many in the local community. Prior to the Frontline programme being broadcast, the story was covered in Berehaven News, a newspaper published by Combat Poverty, a rural development group in the Beara Peninsula. A letter written by Kerry Diocesan Secretary and Social Policy Advisor (and Secretary of St Brendan’s Trust), Father Dermot Clifford condemning the Berehaven News article was also circulated to households in the Beara Peninsula area in January 1980.

After the Frontline programme aired, the Bishop of Kerry, Kevin McNamara and Father Clifford wrote (separately) to RTÉ Director General, George Waters to complain that Colum Kenny was “prejudiced in his approach” and “unfair” in an interview with Father Clifford. The complaint by Bishop McNamara, and the subsequent apologies made by Waters and RTÉ Chairman Patrick Moriarty to the Bishop were covered in several newspapers.

Father Clifford made an official complaint about the programme to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission in November 1980. The Commission rejected Father Clifford’s complaint in April 1981, and said the programme was not ‘a biased production’ and did not consider the interview unduly ‘harsh’.

This sub-series includes documents relating to the research for the programme and the production itself. Also includes letters and numerous newspaper cuttings relating to complaints made by Bishop McNamara and Father Clifford, and the subsequent decision of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.

Much of the sub-series consists of copies of private correspondence written by various individuals relating to the complaint made by Father Clifford to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission in November 1980. This particular material is currently closed and access will be reviewed in 2025.

Frontline television programme: preparation and aftermath

Includes transcript of the Frontline television programme originally broadcast on 1 February 1980; a copy of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission’s decision regarding the complaint made by Father Clifford; copy of letter sent by Colum Kenny to the Cork Examiner in May 1981 requesting that the newspaper publish the Commission’s decision; newspaper cuttings; some research notes written by Colum Kenny [?for the programme]; copy of letter dated 11 January 1980 from Father Clifford to parishioners in the Beara Peninsula condemning the article published in the Berehaven News about the affair; press release from Berehaven News in response to Father Clifford’s letter; Berehaven News, Vol. 1, No. 3, (1979), featuring the original article, and reference material relating to the Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) Act, 1976.

Letters from Cyril Cusack to Colum Kenny.

Two typed and signed letters from Cusack to Kenny dated 17 September and 4 October 1990. Cusack writes from London where he is acting [in a production of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters at the Royal Court Theatre] and thanks Kenny for passing on a letter from Grace Watt (née Muggeridge), and for Kenny’s invitation to visit his house in Bray (1 Herbert Terrace). The Muggeridge family had lived in the house in the 1920s, and Cusack and his mother had lived with them for two to three years around 1922. Cusack discusses his recent attempt at writing an autobiography and remembers Grace and the Muggeridge family fondly.

Letters from Fr Brendan Bradshaw, Queens’ College, Cambridge, UK to Colum Kenny.

Includes two brief letters from Bradshaw. In the first letter dated 23 September 1988, he thanks Kenny for the ‘offprint and review both of which I read with considerable interest and much to my benefit.’ He notes that '[t]he revisionists here and elsewhere are simply exchanging one distortion with another. Your careful research goes towards correcting both.' In the second letter, with postmark dated 5 November 1990 [according to a pencil annotation by Colum Kenny], Bradshaw thanks Kenny for ‘the encouraging letter regarding my article in I.H.S. [Irish Historical Studies].’ Referencing revisionism again, he adds: ‘I realise that I am swimming against the current and have no doubt that a price will have to be paid in some form or another. For the moment, however, the strategy seems to be to allow the anti-revisionist flak to spend itself before mounting a counter-assault.’

Also includes Kenny’s journal article ‘The Exclusion of Catholics from the legal profession in Ireland, 1537-1829’ published in volume XXV, number 100 (November 1987) of Irish Historical Studies. This is possibly a copy of the ‘offprint’ that Bradshaw references in the first letter. Kenny references Bradshaw’s book The Dissolution of the Religious Orders in Ireland under Henry VIII (Cambridge, 1974) in this article.

Promotional photographs, postcards and flyer featuring Cyril Cusack

Promotional photographs and postcards of Cyril Cusack acting in various theatre and television productions in the 1970s and 1980s. These items were enclosed with a letter from Cusack to Grave Watt [see item C2/3/3/3 (8)]. Most of the photographs and postcards include handwritten captions by Cusack on the reverse of the item.

File includes: photographs of Cusack in ‘You Never can Tell’ [Abbey Theatre production from 1978]; ‘Cry of the Innocent’ [television film from 1980]; ‘Merchant of Venice’ [?Abbey Theatre production from 1984]; ‘Carousel’ [Tivoli Theatre, Dublin from 1991]; two photographs of Cusack in unidentified productions (one appears to be a theatre production). Postcards depict Cusack in the title role of the Abbey Theatre production of ‘Hadrian VII’ in 1970 (includes caption by Cusack: ‘This speaks for itself – my papal blessing’) and as Frederick Dorrit in the film ‘Little Dorrit’ [1987].

File also includes a promotional flyer for a National Theatre production of ‘The Plough & the Stars’ featuring an image of Cusack in the role of Fluther Good [?in 1977].

Also included is an envelope [in which the items were originally contained] with handwritten annotations by Grace Watt and Colum Kenny. Watt notes: ‘My favourite – “Cry for the Innocent”. I have kept a couple – he sent me two of himself as the Pope. This was his sense of humour. He knew I was an atheist.’

Michael B Kenny

Sub-fonds consists of a few items relating to Michael B Kenny’s career in advertising. These include a brief history of the Kenny’s Advertising Agency written by Michael, and two photographs: one of the Council of the Advertising/Press Club in 1956 or 1957, and the other of the Kenny’s Advertising Agency premises at Lower Baggot Street, Dublin. Sub-fonds also includes a short biography of Michael [?written by his son Colum Kenny].

Kenny, Michael

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