P. D. Kenny

Patrick Dermot Kenny was born in Lismagansion, Aghamore in 1862. As a child he attended Doogarry National School. Like so many Irish before and after him, while still a teenager he went to work in England. Later on he began to further his education with help from (amongst others) Michael Davitt, the great Mayo born politician and author. P.D. later studied in Manchester.

Afterwards he worked as a journalist in Glasgow and subsequently became editor of the Newcastle Daily. Moving to Brighton he became literary critic for the prestigious Saturday Review where he worked and befriended the famous Winston Churchill.

On the death of his parents P.D. returned to Aghamore to farm the family holding and he immersed himself in the ‘new’ scientific methods of agriculture and horticulture. However, he continued his writing with contributions to various newspapers and journals. Some of his articles in The Irish Times were published in booklet form in 1902 under the title Connacht Ranging, Sealy Bryers and Walker, Dublin and Walter Scott, London.

Books: How to Prevent Strikes, J. Hayward, Manchester, 1894. Economics for Irishmen, Dublin, Maunsel, 1904. Official Philosophy: A Criticism of Co-operation in Ireland, Navan, 1905. The Sorrows of Ireland, Dublin, Maunsel, 1907. My Little Farm, Dublin, Maunsel, 1915. Five Years of Irish Freedom, Henry J. Drane, 1927.

At the request of W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, he chaired the Abbey Theatre debate on Synge’s controversial drams The Playboy of the Western World. On hearing their decision to appoint him as chairman P.D. professed to be most surprised since he felt that he himself was “surely the most unpopular man in all Ireland”.

He certainly was unpopular among many segments of Irish society. An interesting and enigmatic figure he became involved frequently in political and ecclesiastical controversies and in various court cases.

He died in 1944 and is buried in Aghamore cemetery where a fine headstone now adorns his grave.