IRELAND, John: Religion: b. Cuffesgrange 1838; left with eight members
of his family, and members of the neighboring O'Gorman and Cudahy
families, for North America in 1849, when he was 11 years old; they
moved from their landing point at Grosse Ile in Canada to Boston,
Chicago and then St. Paul, where Bishop Cretin, the French-born bishop
of the diocese, recognised the potential of John Ireland (then aged
15) and Thomas O'Gorman as future priests and in1853 arranged for them
to be sent to the Petit Seminaire de Meximieux in the South of France,
where they were placed in care of the Bishop's maiden sister; John
Ireland returned from France in 1861 for ordination in the modest
local church that had replaced a log chapel; under Bishop Cretin's
sucessor, Thomas Grace O.P., he served in a number of pastoral and
military appointments (he was known as the 'Fighting Chaplian of the
Minnesota Fifth'), and gained a reputation for vigour and
outspokenness in the expansion of the Catholic Church in the
mid-western United States and in the temperance movement. Appointed
co-adjutor in 1875 (at the age of 37) to Bishop Grace, he succeeded
on the latters's retirement in 1884 and attended the Third Plenary
Council of the American Hierarchy in Baltimore in the same year.
Within four years, St. Paul had become a metropolitan see (though
there was some controversy about a possible 'bribe' to Rome) and John
Ireland became its first archbishop; before his death thirty years
later, his archdiocese had seen eight new dioceses established in part
of its territory to accommodate the growth of the church (to one of
these, Sioux Falls, established in 1889, his friend Thomas O'Gorman,
was appointed bishop). During his thirty years at the head of the St.
Paul Archdiocese, Dr. Ireland expanded his influence far beyond the
boundaries of his see, becoming a major player in all of the major
developments and controversies in the U.S. church and in effect the
leader of the American church in the Mid-west. He had major input to
discussions and decisions on political and moral issues including
'Americanisation' (as opposed to domination of church affairs and
appointments by foreign-born clergy and prelates), the Civil and
Spanish-American Wars, the colonisation movement and relations between
the Vatican and the American Church (he was at one time considered for
a Cardinal's hat). Internationally, he used his French educational
background to play a leading role in the Vatican's relations with
France, to which he paid a triumphal visit in 1892 for a programme of
lectures and meetings with officials, and he was heavily involved in
the arrangements that led to the appointment of the first permanent
Papal representative to the United States. Within his official remit,
he was a determined and respected leader of the effort to develop
church facilities and deepen the spirituality of his flock. He died in
1918, aged eighty.
JOHNSON, Paul: Science: b. Callan; ed. ? and Oxford; graduated ....
and Ph.D in Zoology; appointed Analyst, Oxford Wildlife Research Unit;
Editor/contributor Oxford Wildlife Review (1998) ....
JOHNSTONE, John Henry: Arts: b. Kilkenny 1749; became a well-known
actor on the Dublin stage, principally at Smock Alley, whose company
also visited Kilkenny; went to London where he played in starring
roles at Covent Garden theatres and became famous as "Irish'
Johnstone.
KEANE, Edward Morgan: Publishing: b. Wales, son of Dr. John J. Keane,
a Listowel-born medical practitioner who had settled in the
principality and married into a prominent Swansea shipping family, the
Meaghers; during a varied early career, Edward was widely travelled
and spent time in Iraq where he became a fluent speaker of Arabic;
eventually settled in Winchester, England until the death of his uncle
E.T. Keane (q.v.) in 1945 resulted in his succeeding to ownership of
the Kilkenny People newspaper (founded by E.T.); developed the
newspaper's coverage and operations until his premature death in 1960,
when he was succeeded by his son John Kerry Keane (q.v.) who shared
control with his mother Eileen Keane (later Murray).
KEANE, Edward Thomas: Publishing: b. 1867, Listowel into a family that
was also (later) to produce the noted dramatist, John B. Became a
journalist, working with the Munster News, (Clonmel) Nationalist and
Kilkenny Moderator, then a Unionist publication. In 1892 he
established the Kilkenny People in conjunction with Paddy O'Keeffe,
later Mayor and Borough Treasurer of Kilkenny, to represent the
Parnellite point of view; ultimately the newspaper took a strong
nationalist viewpoint which did not meet with the approval of the
authorities in troubled times – the printing plant was raided and the
equipment put out of action. But Keane returned to action with a
vengeance and his trenchant editorials were always fearless. When he
died in 1945 aged 78 at his home on Dublin Road where he had lived
with his wife Ann, he was the oldest working journalist in Ireland.
The business passed to his nephew Edward Morgan Keane (q.v.).
KEANE, John Kerry: Publishing: b. Winchester 1938; moved to Ireland
1945 when his father inherited the Kilkenny People newspaper from his
uncle, E. T. Keane (q.v.); ed. Kilkenny C.B.S., Clongowes Wood
College, UCD and Kings Inns; with his mother as co-director, took over
the newspaper at the age of 22 in 1960 on the death of his father;
developed the business into a major printing and publishing group,
relocating the printing plant to extensive premises at Purcellsinch
and taking over the ownership of the (Clonmel) Nationalist and
Tipperary Star. A director of the Government-sponsored Kilkeny Design
Workshops in its earlier years, he was also first chairman of the
board of the restored Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, home to the Irish
Museum of Modern Art. He was involved in a number of projects to
develop national publications, and also became a member of Lloyds and
of a number of charitable organisations. The publishing firm has
remained essentially a family-run operation.
KEHER, Eddie: Sport: b. Inistioge 1941, the second child of Stephen
and Noreen Keher; ed. St. Kieran's College, where he first attracted
attention as a rising star in hurling, winning All Ireland Colleges
medals in 195? and 195?; entered banking and was appointed to Dublin
branches of the Provincial (later Allied Irish) Bank; was a regular
member of Kilkenny minir and senior county teams for more than
fifteen? years during which he won eight senior All-Ireland medals,
and was captain of the winning team in 1969; also won numerous club
and All-Star distinctions; m. Kathleen (Kay) Phelan 1966; later
assigned to senior positions in AIB at Kilkenny and Callan; retired
1995 and took up involvement in commentating and marketing for
'Ireland on Sunday' newspaper.
KELLY, Matthew: Writing: b. Kilkenny 1814, son of Ellenor Doyle of
Ballysallagh House (Johnswell) and Christopher Kelly??; ed. Maynooth,
where he was ordained about 1838; went to Irish College, Paris as
professor from 1839 to 1841; Professor at Maynooth from 1841 oneards;
wrote a Calendar of Irish Saints, published 1857; died at the age of
44 in 1858; his cousin Joseph Doyle later became surgeon to Maynooth??
KERR, Bobby: Business: b. Nenagh, 1937?, son of Robert Samuel Kerr, a
bank manager; entered the hotel business and became the first graduate
of the new Shannon Hotel School; worked in a number of hotel positions
in Ireland and overseas before becoming manager of the Old Ground
Hotel in Ennis and then of Jury's Hotel, Dublin, then in its city
centre location on Dame Street; m. Moya ? and has three sons and two
daughters; with Dublin investment interests selected Kilkenny as a
suitable location for a new hotel development and opened the
16-bedroom Newpark Hotel in 1966; over a period of thirty years the
hotel grew to almost eight times its original size and also
incorporated a leisure centre, opened in 1987; at the turn of the
century, it had 111 bedrooms and employed 150 people.
KIERAN or CIARAN, Saint: Religion: Venerated as the founder of the
church in Ossory, this descendant of the ancient kings of the
territory was born, in the custom of the time, among his mother's
people on Cape Clear Island, off the coast of Cork, about the
beginning of the 5th. century. (It was once commonly believed that he
was born about 350 AD and had lived for over 200 years, preaching the
faith in Ireland long before the arrival of St. Patrick). He remained
in his native area until he was about thirty. Then hearing of the
faith through sea-faring folk and perhaps some early missionaries, he
set out for Rome about 432 AD and spent more than twenty years there.
Perhaps already a bishop before his return to Ireland about 460, he is
reputed to have met St. Patrick on his journey northwards. Patrick was
a Roman Briton who had escaped from slavery in Ireland around 437 and
who was now preparing in the south of France for a long-planned
mission to Ireland. Patrick told Kieran that the bell he carried would
ring of its own accord when Kieran came to the place where he was
destined to found his monastery. He arrived in Ireland possibly only a
few months ahead of Patrick and tradition has it that as he progressed
northward from the south, the bell rang at Saighir, near Birr (he is
associated with a number of other sites in North Kilkenny and Laois
also). But the cathedral church of Ossory was to be at Saighir for
the next six hundred years, and Saigher Chiarain, ir Seir Kieran,
remains an 'island' parish attached to the diocese of Ossory though
surrounded by the diocese of Killaloe (the cathedral was later to move
to Aghaboe and finally Kilkenny). Although his own lifestyle was
humble and poverty-stricken, his holiness and scholarship attracted
many followers and the monastic foundation grew quickly and was richly
endowed by the local nobility (according to legend, his cattle-sheds
had ten doors and he kept fifty horses for tilling). Princes and
people alike converted readily to the Christian faith, and soon he was
in a position to send missionaries to other parts of Ireland and to
Wales and Scotland (he is also venerated in the south-west of England,
where there is a cult of St. Peran and where his arm and head were
said at one time to have been enshrined). Two meetings in Ireland
between Kieran and St. Patrick are recorded. Despite the tradition of
his travels overseas from Ireland, it is more than likely that he died
among his brethern at Saighir. His feast-day is observed on March 5th.
St. Canice, who was to establish the monastery in Kilkenny that later
became the cathedral church of the diocese of Ossory, was ......
Others associated with Saighir were Cairneach Moel, Kieran's scribe,
who is said to have produced an Imirche or life of the saint;
Carthach, a member of the royal family of Cashel, who succeeded Kieran
(despite having been previously sent to Rome as penance for 'dalliance
with a woman'; and Killen, Laighden, Maccog, Cobhtach, Fearadach,
Conchobhar, Connmhach, Irghaldach, Anlaun, Sloghadhach, Cormac,
Fergal, Fogarthach, Ceannfaeladh, Dunchadh and Ceallach, who are
recorded as abbots of Saighir, and in many cases also Bishops of
Ossory, during the next five hundred years.
KILROY, Thomas: Writer: b. Callan, 1934, into a family that was to
produce a number of other distinguished siblings (including Michael,
b. 1922, later a senior member of the staff of the Oireachtas, and
Paddy, a prominent solicitor and businessman); ed. St. Kieran's
College and UCD, where he graduated as Bachelor and Master of Arts;
became a writer and critic, producing a number of notable novels and
plays. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame in
1962-3 and at Vanderbilt University in 1964-5. His work includes
(plays unless otherwise stated): The Death and Resurrection of Mr.
Roche (1969); The Big Chapel (novel, 1971, written around the story of
the Callan Curates, Fathers O'Shea and , q.v.); Tea, Sex and
Shakespeare (1976), Madam McAdams Travelling Theatre, and a
translateion of Chekhov's The Seagull (1981). He was Professor of
Modern English at University College Galway from 1979 to 1989 and was
awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Irish Academy of Letters
Award for his work. His later work has included Double Cross, a play
produced by the Field Day Company in 1986 ...
KINSELLA, William, Religion: b. 1796 in Carlow where he was educated,
later teaching philosophy at Carlow College, which had been
established in the year of his birth. When a dispute arose in 1828
about a successor to Dr. Marum as Bishop of Ossory, Bishop Doyle of
Kildare and Leighlin (famous as J.K.L., the writer on public and
social issues in the run-up to Catholic Emancipation) suggested his
former pupils Fr. Kinsella, who was then just 32. The appointment was
confirmed by the Pope in the following year, as the Emancipation
decree was proclaimed. Dr. Kinsella began work on the present St.
Kieran's College (completed in 1836) and St. Mary's Cathedral
(completed by his successor in 1857). He followed his mentor Dr. Doyle
in engaging in public controversies about the social plight of the
poor and the status of the Catholic Church. He was not yet 50 when he
dies in 1845 after sixteen years as bishop.
KOSS, Joseph: Music: b. 1879 in Boldexen, Westphalia, Germany;
graduated in music about 1900 and after a number of short-term
appointments in Germany came to Loughrea as organist in the cathedral
there in 1908. Here he met and married his wife Norah (nee Cagney) and
in 1912 they moved to Kilkenny where he had secured the position of
organist in St. Mary's Cathedral. In 1917 he was interned and removed
to the Isle of Man on the grounds that he was 'an associate of Sinn
Fein" (he had attended a public meeting addressed by De Valera). In
1922 he was released and returned to Ireland, where he undertook music
teaching, including sessions at St. Kieran's College. He became a
confidant of Fr. Collier, the college president from 1925, and on the
latter's appointment as Bishop in 1928, Mr. Koss became influential in
all matters relating to sacred music, including the appointment of Fr.
Cornelius Sherin as diocesan director in 1934. He became an Irish
citizen in 1939 and continued as Cathedral organist and teacher during
the 40s and 50s, dying in Kilkenny in 1964, the same year as Bishop
Collier.
KYTLER, Alice: Business: b. about 1275, this notorious innkeeper,
moneylender and suspected witch was originally the wife of Robert le
Kytler, a Kilkenny-based merchant and banker who traded extensively
with Flanders. Her second husband was named Outlaw, and it was her son
by this marriage, William, who became her partner in many of the
nefarious schemes for which she later became well known (she
threatened that 'unto the house of William, my son, be all the wealth
of Kilkenny town'). She had three other known husbands (Adam le
Blund, Richard de Valle and Sir John le Poer, whom she was said to
control by 'spells, pills and potions'). In 1323, Bishop Ledrede
confronted the group who had formed around Alice and her son (they
included the Galrussyn family, Petronilla de Meath and Petronilla's
daughter Sara). Hset up an inquisition that found them guilty of
sorcery - communing with spirits (the principal spirit being named
Robert Artisson), and sacrificing 'nine red cocks and nine peacock's
eyes'). Alice's children by her other husbands sided with the bishop
and Alice was forced to flee to Dublin and then to England.
Petronilla de Meath was burned at the stake. However, the fugitive's
supporters were active in her interests, and Bishop Ledrede was forced
to flee to France where he remained at Avignon for nine years. William
Outlaw repented of his sins, and agreed as penance to re-roof St.
Canice's Cathedral. Alice Kytler is associated with the building in
Kieran Street in Kilkenny commonly known as 'Kytler's Inn'.