The following was kindly sent by Brian Kennedy. The website http://www.onthenet.com.au/~laurieag/index.htm contains information about his book “The Irish Kennedys” written after many years of research and 17 visits to Ireland. This book covers the history of the O’Kennedys over nearly 1,000 years and includes several chapters about finding my family’s roots in Foilycleara and tracing them back to the first Kennedy. There are many mentions of Doon and its people. A full index is provided on the website. The book can now be obtained from John Butler at The Bookworm bookshop in Thurles.
Chapter 48
One Kennedy Family:
Discovery
M
y son, Sean Patrick Kennedy, decided to visit Ireland in 1993 to see if anything further could be discovered. Prior to the visit we made one last effort to try to find any more clues to the origins of our family in Ireland.We had learned from McClaughlin (1985) about Griffiths Valuation of Ireland being: a goldmine for family historians whose ancestors were living in Ireland between 1848 and 1864. With his advice that: The valuation is not easy to work with largely because of the complicated administrative history of Ireland and …to trace an Irish ancestor in Griffiths Valuation, easily and with certainty, one really needs to know the name of whoever would have been the head of the household at the time valuation was made, we went to the Genealogical Society rooms in Brisbane and started a final search.
We obtained the microfiche slides for Griffiths Valuation for Doon Parish and started looking through them. This became quite a task as we found that there were many townlands (approximately 50) in Doon Parish with Irish names that were difficult to pronounce. One by one we searched the list of names in each townland we came to, finding an occasional Kennedy, some named Patrick, but nothing to indicate a connection with my great great grandfather.
Then, on the screen in front of me appeared a name. That’s it! I exclaimed. The memory of the name jotted on the scrap of paper eight years before came back to me. The name in front of me was ‘Foilycleara’ - very close to the name that Stella Long had mentioned in 1985. I looked down the column of names of tenants and landholders knowing that I would find the name Patrick Kennedy. And sure enough, there it was. Copies of the slide were obtained and we went home to verify our find with the scrap of paper that I had put away for safekeeping. The name on the scrap of paper - Foilaclara - was enough for us to get very excited about finding our Irish roots.
Because of the Penal Laws, scant records are available to substantiate the connection made between the Kennedys of Ormond and the Kennedy family of Foilycleara townland, Doon Parish, County Limerick discussed hereafter. This townland is on the border between Limerick and Tipperary in a peninsula of land bounded by the old Baronies of Arra and Owney and by the old Barony of Kilnelongurty.
Finding foilycleara
My son Sean first stopped in Dublin when he visited Ireland in 1993. He went to the Lands Valuation Office in Ely Place and obtained a copy of the Ordnance Survey map for Foilycleara that was drawn in 1840. The numbers of the sub-divisions on this map had been amended several times and the original numbers, although crossed out, were clearly legible. The numbers on the map cross-referenced with the numbers on Griffiths Valuation so that Sean was able to identify the land held by Patrick Kennedy at Foilycleara. The map also showed three buildings on Patrick Kennedy’s allotment. Sean then bought a current Ordnance Survey map No.18 for Tipperary and headed west.
It was fortunate that I had to go to the United States on business and could go on further to Ireland. I arranged to meet up with Sean in Ireland and flew in to Shannon airport near the town of Limerick. Sean met my flight. It was also my first visit to Ireland. With remarkable calmness, Sean told me that he had located the Kennedy land on the previous day and that the buildings were still standing, although in a derelict condition. He told me that he had followed the back roads on the map and gauged his position from the contours. In this way he came to the school shown on the map at Foilycleara.
The school was no longer in use so he went to the nearest house which was owned by John and Mary Favier. Sean announced who he was and asked for directions to the Kennedy place. Mary pointed out the buildings hidden in a grove of trees that Sean had passed. They were no more than 100 metres away. Mary also told him that, while no one lived there now, there were some relatives around the other side of the mountain, Knockastanna, on which the land sat. This is how Sean found our family’s roots in Ireland.
With considerable excitement I loaded my luggage into the car and we set out for Foilycleara which was about twenty kilometres away on the other side of Limerick. The feeling was one of euphoria that, after more than twenty years of searching, we had made the long sought after discovery.
It was a cold drizzly afternoon when we stopped the car on the road outside and walked in to the yard. I cannot describe my feelings as I stepped over the threshold into the cottage. To think that my great grand parents had left here to go to Australia.
To think that this very hearth at which we were now looking was the one around which our Kennedys had gathered so many years ago was overwhelming. §
Ordnance Survey Map of Foilycleara. 1840
PRIMARY VALUATION OF TENEMENTS
PARISH OF DOON
