KILKENNY BIOGRAPHIES
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AENGHUS, Public Life: Also known as Aenghus Osrithe, he was founder and first ruler of the Kingdom of Ossory; son of Crimthanna Mor And Cennait, both descended from prominent princely lines, he flourished in the second half of the second century. He took gis name from the Gaelic for 'found by deer', anglicised eventually to Ossory, and his sept was to rule the area for a thousand years, having conquered aboriginal tribes.
ANDERSON, Paris: Literature: b. c. 1790, Kilkenny City (?); enrolled in Kilkenny Militia, 1815; moved to Dublin (by 1837) ; only novel The Warden of the Marches published in Kilkenny 1844; essays in Kilkenny Moderator 1848 under title 'Nooks and Corners of Co. Kilkenny', republished in 1914; d. c. 1860.
ARCHDEKIN, Richard, S.J., Religion, Scholarship: b. Kilkenny 1618 to one of the city's principal families; ordained as Jesuit priest 1642; professor of Theology at Universities of Louvain and Antwerp; theological study A Treatise of Miracles published in Louvain, 1667 (believed first work of kind to be published contemporaneously in English and Latin); also wrote Controversi Fidei (later republished as Theologia Tripartita Universa, running to more than twelve editions up to 1718) and a life of St. Patrick; d. Antwerp, 1693.
ARCHER, Bartholomew: Religion; b. Kilkenny c. 1590; spent most of his life in France, and is noted as Procurator of the Greman Nation at the University of Paris (1638) and Chaplain Extraordinary to Her Most Serene Highness, Maria Henrietta, Queen of Great Britain and to Anna Maria, daughter of Duke of Orleans (1645). In 1647, at the height of the Confederation of Kilkenny period, international efforts, involving the Holy See and the Duke of Ormonde, were made to confirm him as parish priest of Callan, but the Nuncio, Rinuccini, did not support him although he was recommended by the Nuncio in the following year as co-adjutor to the aging David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory. This appointment did not materialise either, but Archer would appear to have finally secured the Callan position and died there in 1653.
ARCHER, James S. J.: Religion, Public Life: b. Kilkenny City c. 1550, he studied and was ordained at Louvain and became a member of the Society of Jesus in Rome in1581, after which he worked in Flanders and Lorraine as pastor and academic. He also undertook a mission to England, but was imprisoned there for a time before returning to the Continent, where he became first rector of the Irish College at Salamanca in 1593. Over the next decade he became involved in the campaign of the Northern Earls and the Laois chieftain O'Moore against the English, and was often found in their company in Ireland, where he was regarded by the English as a malign influence on Hugh O'Neill. He was present near Ballyragget in 1600 when the Duke of Ormonde was captured by O'Moore, but the English blackened his reputation at the highest levels in his order and in Rome, and despite his involvement with the ill-fated Spanish expedition to Ireland in 1603, he was never to have any major influence on Irish affairs again, despite several attempts to do so. Apart from his political instincts, he was a respected academic and administrator and he spent the last years of his life supervising the Irish colleges in Spain and Portugal. He died about 1620.
ARCHER, William: Public Life: Soverign or Chief Magistrate of Kilkenny in the early 1600s, he led the Catholics of the city in the repossession of their churches on the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603. For this he was put in prison, where he contracted an illness that led to his death in mid-1604. IR?
ARMSTRONG, John: Religion: b. Belfast 1915, ed. Belfast Royal Academy; Trinity College, Dublin; ordained for service in the Church of Ireland, 1939; Dublin pastoral appointments 1938-58; Dean, St. Patrick's Cathedral, 1958-68; Bishop of Cashel, Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin 1968; Chairman, Irish Council of Churches 1979; Archbishop of Armagh 1980-86; d. 1987; one of a distiguished tradition of Kilkenny-based bishops who went on to achieve national status and achievement in a primatial see.
AYLWARD, Richard: Religion, Scholarship: b. Glenmore; ed. St. Kieran's College and Maynooth?, ordained 1904?; professor of Irish, St. Kieran's 1905-1919; President 1919-23; parish priest, Durrow, 1923- (succeeding the diocesan historian, William Carrigan); d. 1954. His unpublished life of John O'Donovan reflects his scholarly interests and abilities.
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BALE, John: Religion: Controversial first Protestant bishop of Ossory,
appointed in 1553 by Edward VI. Originally a Carmelite friar from
Norfolk, where he was born about 1495, he had studied at Cambridge but
seems to have turned against Catholicism before the official
Reformation, since he was at one point imprisoned by Henry VIII for
his attacks on the Roman church, and was later forced to flee to
Germany for eight years. Obviously back in favour, he came to Kilkenny
with his wife and family shortly after his appointment as bishop but
within six months Queen Mary had ascended the English throne and Bale
was forced to flee again, this time to Basle in Switzerland. When
Queen Elizabeth I succeeded in 1558, he returned to England but asked
for a position at Canterbury, where he was prebendary for a few short
years until his death in 1563 at the age of 68 (he is buried in the
nave of Canterbury Cathedral. He was said to have been 'obsessed by
preaching and antiquity' and wrote or transcribed many treatises in
both English and Latin, including the ancient charters of Kilkenny.
BANIM, Bill: Sport: b. Freshford 1900?; worked in family business
until his departure for Dublin, where he became a barman? and won an
All-Ireland medal playing with Dublin in 1924.
BANIM, JOHN, arts: b. Kilkenny City 1798, son of shopkeeper; ed,
local schools and Royal Dublin Society Art School 1813; returned to
Kilkenny as teacher of drawing 1815; poem The Celts Paradise,
influenced by works of Sir Walter Scott, published 1820-21; verse
tragedy Damon and Pythias produced successfully with famed actors
Macready and Kemble in lead parts 1822; married and moved to London
182?; with assistance of brother Michael produced Tales of the O'Hara
Family, series of 24 novelettes including the popular Crohore of the
Billhook and The Nowlans, published 1825 and (second series) 1827;
The Boyne Water, first full-scale novel, published 1826; others
followed – The Croppy (1828), The Last Baron of Crana, The Conformists
(1830), The Smuggler (1831), Fr. Connell (1835); He suffered a health
breakdown in the latter year and retired, partially paralysed, to
Kilkenny on a small Civil List pension. He died in 1842, aged just 44.
BANIM, MICHAEL Literature: B. 1796, two years before his brother John,
whom he assisted with Tales of the O'Hara Family, writing more than
half of the total number of stories; held minor adinistrative
positions before and after his brother's death in 1844 until appointed
postmaster, Kilkenny 1852; his Clough Finn published in Dublin
University Magazine in same year, aged 56; The Town of the Cascades
published twelve years later. He resigned in 1873 and went to live in
Booterstown, Dublin, where he died in the following year aged 78.
BARRON, Catherine: Religion: b. Lowhill, parish of Ballyragget, 1839;
entered Bons Secours order in Dublin 1866 as Sr. Philip; following
uncertainties about the order's future in Ireland, she joined with Sr.
Visitation Clancy, a native of the same parish, in establishing a new
nursing order dedicated to St. John of God in Wexford, with the
support of the local bishop, Dr. Furlong. Sr. Philip arrived in
Wexford in 1971 to undertake the new mission. The order took over the
wokhouse there in 1873, and the Faythe schols in 1875. Involvement in
workhouses or hospitals in Castlecomer, Carrick-on-Suir and New Ross
followed and the order eventually established houses in England,
Cameroon, Italy, Australia and Pakistan. Sr. Philip spent most of her
religious life in Wexford, and died there in 1918, aged79.
BARRY, Thomas, Religion 1400?-1460 A graduate of both civil and church
law, this learned bishop of Ossory served for over thirty years from
1427 (eight different bishiops had served at various times during the
previous thirty years). He was appointed Treasurer of Ireland in 1429,
a position he retained until 1442. He built a castle and hall at
Bishopslough. He died in 1460 and is buried in St. Canice's Cathedral.
BARRY, Valentine: Medicine: b. 1927; ed. ??; various medical officer
positions in Tipperary, Department of Health and Cavan before
appointment as Chief Medical Officer, Co. Kilkenny 1964; became first
Programme Manager, Community Care on inaugration of South Eastern
Health Board, based in Kilkenny in 1971 .....CO
BERGIN, Joseph: Scholarship: b. Rathkyle, parish of Conahy, 1948;
ed. Rockwell College and UCD. Lectured at NUI Maynooth from 1976-78;
appointed lecturer in history at the University of Manchester in the
latter year, becoming Reader in 1992 and Professor in 1996; elected a
Fellow of the British Academy in the same year. Significantly honoured
in Britain and France for his work in French history; awarded an
honorary Doctorate of Literature by his university in 2004. Has
written six major works, including the definitive biography of
Cardinal Richelieu and a wide-ranging study of the French hierarchy.
In 2010 received the ‘Antiquities of France’ medal for his book
Church, Society and Religious Change in France 1580-1730 (Yale
University Press); awarded the Richelieu Medal for exceptional
scholarship in 2011.
BERKELEY, George: Religion, Scholarship: b. Dysart Castle, near
Thomastown, 1685; ed. Trinity College, Dublin, where he was based from
1701 to 1713 as student, fellow and tutor and where he took holy
orders in the established church; published Essay towards a New Theory
of Vision in 1709, when he was 24 and Treatise concerning the
Principles of Human Knowledge in1710 , both works having significant
influence on European thought regarding the primacy of mind over
matter and the primacy of a supreme reason. Between 1714 and 1721,
following the publication of Dialogues between Hylas and Philonius, he
travelled extensively in Europe, and produced Essay toward preventing
the Ruin of Great Britain on his return. In 1722, he became Dean of
Derry but spent much of the next few years in London investigating the
establishment of a college in Bermuda, for which he had received a
grant of £20,000. In 1728 he set off for the West Indies, but landed
instead in Rhode Island on the North American mainland, where he
passed three years in discussions on philosophy and education and
published a work (Alphicron) defending religion against free thinkers.
He returned to Ireland in 1731 and in 1734 was appointed Bishop of
Cloyne. In this position he took an active interest in social reform,
but continued his writing career, publishing The Analyst a critical
examination of Newtownian mathematics; The Querist, a compilation of
500 questions and answers on soecial and economic problems in three
volumes, and pamphlets on religious toleration in Ireland. His final
major publication, Siris, appeared in 1744 and dealt with empirical
medicine and the exposition of idealism. In 1752 he resigned his
bishopric and moved to England, where he died the following year aged
68. His reputation as a philosopher is maintained through his works
and his commemoration in the Californian university town of Berkeley,
which, however, he never visited.
BIBBY, Thomas, Literature: b. Kilkenny, educated at Trinity College,
where he was noted as a student of Greek; his later career is not
documented other than his composition and dedication of a series of
long dramatic poems on the Fitgeralds, Dukes of Leinster (Gerald of
Kildare, published 1845; Silken Thomas 1859). He became a reclusive
eccentric in his last years and died in Kilkenny in 1863.
BIRCH, Peter, Religion, Public Life : b. Tullowglass, Jenkinstown
1911; educated St. Kierans's, Maynooth, where he graduated B.A. in
English 1933; ordained 1937; professor of English, St. Kieran's
1938-51; Ph.D., National University of Ireland, 1951 for his work on
the history of St. Kieran's (published same year); Professor of
Education, Maynooth 1952-63; Coadjutor (1962-4) and Bishop (1964-81)
of Ossory. Though shy and introverted, he created a new pastoral and
social dimension through his organisation of social action, media
appearances, articles and general advocacy for the poor and
marginalised. He encouraged lay participation in both social action
and church life, introduced professional structures and training for
social work and child care, and initiated/supported extensive
provision for the handicapped. He died suddenly at his residence in
March 1981.
BOURKE, James Daniel: Medicine; b. Kilkenny 1919, ed. St. Kieran's
College and UCD; graduated in medicine 1943; practised extensively as
an anaesthetist in Dublin, Kilkenny, Edinburgh, Cork; Consultant
Anaesthetist, Birmingham Regional Hospital Board 1960; Author of miscellaneous articles re his speciality in The Lancet, Edw Medical Journal etc.
IR
BOWEN, Richard Alex: Engineering: b. Kilkenny 1934; ed. Clongowes
Wood College, UCD; graduated in Engineering 19??; worked on various
civil projects in Kilkenny and London before joining the local firm of
Mahon & McPhillips 19??, where he specialised in the design and
planning of water and wastewater treatment plants in a new division
established for that purpose under the direction of Rory McPhillips
(q.v.); became prominent in his field as the company expanded both
nationally and internationally; instrumental in establishing Bowen
Water Technology in 1994; d. in traffic accident 1997.
BRADY, Marjorie: Literature, Public Life: b. ed. involved in
activities and issues affecting the environment in Kilkenny, including
Keep Kilkenny Beautiful Committee; co-ordinated re-issue of Kilkenny
Architecture by Katherine Lanigan (q.v.) and Gerald Tyler q.v.); wrote
Maude Gonne .....IR
BRADLEY, John: Scholarship[: b. Kilkenny, ed. graduating in
Director, Urban Archaeology Survey and lecturer in History, UCD;
Lecturer in Modern History, NUI Maynooth; author of many articles on
mediaeval Kilkeny and on life in the Middle Ages in other Irish towns
and cities; adviser and lecturer to local history and archaeology
groups and projects; wrote intreoduction to Carrigans History and
Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory, republished 1981.
BRENAN, John: Religion, Scholarship; b. Kilkenny 1625 to family of
Momeenroe area ancestry; in 1645 was among a group of fibve students,
including Oliver Plunkett, who accompanied Fr. Peter Scarampo, an
emissary to the Confederation of Kilkenny, on his return to Rome.
Ordained about 1657, and appointed as Professor of Philosphy at the
Propaganda College; made Professor of Theology there 1666; succeeded
his friend and companuon of a quarter-century Oliver Plunkett as agent
of the Irish hierarchy and clergy on the latter'a appointment as
Archbishop of Armagh 16??; hinmself appointed Bishop of Waterford and
Lismore 1670; arrived in Ireland 1672, but was forced by threat of
persecution to flee to Armagh, where he joined his friend Archbishop
Plunket in a life of concealment and pursuit; returned to his diocese
1675-6 and in 1677 was appointed Archbishop of Cashel, but allowed to
con tinue as Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. Convened diocesan and
provincial synods of which records still exist; died 1693; buried at
Tibrid, near Cahir.
BRENAN, Michael: Religion, Scholarship: b. 1790 at Maudlin St.,
Kilkenny City; ed. locally and at Maynooth, but may have returned to
Kilkenny to complete his studies at the Maudlin St. seminary. Ordained
about 1814, and soon joined the Franciscan order , where he served in
various houses before ending his ministry at the friary in Dublin's
Merchants's Quay. Published his two-volume work The Ecclesiastical
History of Ireland fromthe Introduction of Christianity to the Year
1829 in 1840. Died 1846.
BRENNAN, Nicholas: Religion, Academic: b. 1854 at Sart, freshford; ed.
Blackrock College; entered Holy Ghost order and was ordained c. 1880;
noted as a scholar of Latin and Greek, and later translated Byron's
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage into Latin hexameters; teacher and
President Rockwell College, Blackrock College and St. Mary's College,
Port of Spain; one of a number of distinguished Kilkenny-born members
of the Holy Ghost order (see also entries for Doheny, Michael, Kevin;
Fogarty, Thomas; .......IR
BRENNAN, Redmond: Industry: b. Kilkenny 1924; ed. and UCC; graduated
in Dairy Science 1945; Assistant Manager Drombanna Co-op, Limerick
1945-1955; Manager, Muckalee Co-op, Kilkenny 1955-66; general manager
and subsequently first managing director of Avonmore, initially a
joint venture between six local co-ops in the south Midlands area and
Unigate UK. Led the development of this company as a major player in
the Irish and international dairy products and agri-trading sectors.
Restired in 1989, but maintained directorships in a number of other
companies including Campus Oil and Killeen Investments (Mount Juliet).
BRENNAN, Thomas: Sport: b. 1940; member of Irish show-jumping teams.
1962-1972; bloodstock agent, director Dublin Bloodstock Ltd. .... IR
BROOK, Gina: Entertainment: stage name of Mabel McCheane (q.v.)
BROWNRIGG, Anbraham: Religion: b. 1836, Clonegal, Co. Carlow; ed.
Tullow, Dublin, St. Peter's (Wexford), Maynooth; ordained 1861;
principal, St. Aidan's Academy and teacher, St. Peters 1861-66;
preacher (1866) and director (1876) of House of Missions, Enniscorthy;
appointed to succeed Bishop Moran of Ossory on the latters appointment
as Archbishop of Sydney in 1884 (Ossory priests had selected the then
President of Carlow College, but theie decision was over-ruled. Bishop
Brownrigg was to remain in his new position for 44 years, guiding the
diocese through the troubled years of the founding of a new state, and
encouraging William Carrigan (q.v.) to document the history of the
diocese. He died in 1928 at the age of 92.
BURKE, Thomas: Religion, Scholarship: b. Dublin 1709 from Western (de
Burgo) family roots; ed. Rome, where he became a member of the
Dominican order at the age of 15 by special dispensation; returned to
Ireland 1743 and became member of the Kilkenny Dominican community;
drafted a supplement to the Breviary for 23 Irish saints whose feasts
had been decreed due to his efforts; between 1753 and 1757 wrote
Hibernia Dominicana, a history of the Dominican order in Ireland
(published 1762, with a supplement published in 1772); in 1759
nominated as Bishop of Ossory and consecrated at Drogheda; involved in
a number of controversies regarding mensal parishes and oaths of
allegiance; d. 1776.
BUSHE, Charles Kendal: Public Life, Law: b. Kilmurry, Thomastown 1767;
ed. Trinity College, Dublin where he was a noted orator; called to the
Bar 1790; MP Callan Borough, Irish Parliament 1796; opposed Act of
Union and encouraged Catholic Emancipation; widely regarded as honest
and incoprruptible; appointed Chief Justice of Ireland 1822; d. 1843.