06/11/2025
THE IRISH KENNEDY BOOKS BY BRIAN PATRICK KENNEDY
SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER
Until Further Notice:
1. If you order 2 books from THE IRISH KENNEDYS BOOKS you will pay half price for the second (cheaper) book.
2. If you order 3 books, you only pay for the first 2. The third (cheaper) book will be free.
3. This discount is only available on request from the website below and is not available from Amazon or elsewhere.
DETAILS HERE https://theirishkennedys.weebly.com/ordering.html
THE STORY OF THE IRISH KENNEDY BOOKS
For over seventy years, writing has been part of my life. In the early 1940s I learned to write with a steel pen nib dipped in ink with the help of my many older sisters and brothers. By the time I was five years old in 1945 I was penning my contribution to the family letters that were sent to my older brothers who were serving in the Australian army in the Pacific during World War II. By the early 1950s I had been introduced to the writing of essays by the Christian Brothers in Bundaberg. Brother Ryan, fresh from Ireland, lingers in my memory as the person who brought literature and writing to life for me. I left school at the age of fourteen to venture out into the wide world and took with me a keen interest in reading and writing.
By 1970 I was beginning to think about my Irish ancestry. My father had died some years before and he had always told us that we were descended from King Kennedy of Ireland who died in battle at the age of eighty-three. With little information to go on I set about trying to find out more about my Kennedys. Over the next twenty-three years I collected a large amount of information about Ireland and a little amount about my Kennedy ancestors. In 1993 my son Sean and I visited Ireland for the first time. This was the first of what were to be twenty-five visits for me. We located the farm that my great grandfather Martin Kennedy left to go to Australia in 1863. We also met a few of the many Irish people who were to become good friends over the coming years.
I had commenced what turned out to be fifteen years of university study at the age of forty-two. Several units on research methods were part of my masters degree course. Empiricist, interpretive and critical approaches to research were methodologies with which I became very familiar. These turned out to be very valuable when it came to researching the Irish Kennedys.
My bookcase and shelves were bulging with information about the Irish Kennedys and, after several more visits to Ireland by 1997, it seemed appropriate to put a summary of this into a book that would be available to others. In 1998 “The Irish Kennedys – The story of the rebellious O’Kennedys” was published. This book was well received but I soon realised that there was much more to be added. By 2005 a much larger second edition was ready for the printers.
More visits to Ireland and discussions in Irish farmhouses followed. When following up on the history of my Kennedy family in the mountains of North Tipperary it became obvious that there was a large unwritten history of the many Kennedy families who were descended from those who sought refuge in the mountains after the Cromwellian dispossessions in the mid 1600s. More research followed and “The Mountainy Kennedys – Tipperary stayputs” was received from the printers in 2012.
During one of my early visits to see Patrick Grennan at the Kennedy Homestead in Dunganstown, County Wexford, I was told by Patrick that they knew next to nothing about the Kennedy ancestry of US President John F Kennedy. The late president’s ancestor had left the homestead to travel to the US but they had no knowledge of where his Kennedy family originated in Ireland. Following a request from Patrick another research project was initiated. “John F Kennedys Irish O’Kennedy Ancestors” was published in 2012.
More research into the Kennedys in the mountains resulted in the publication of “The Mountainy Kennedys – Linking past and present” as a second volume in 2014. Much feedback was received from Kennedys across North Tipperary as a result. I was asked “When are you going to write about the Kennedys from further north?” After a lot more research I was able to write the history of “The Upper Ormond Kennedys – Their claims to Tipperary soil” which was published in 2014. The inevitable question was to follow – “What about the Lower Ormond Kennedys?” After a further twelve months research and writing “The Lower Ormond Kennedys – Their claims to Tipperary soil” has just been published.
I did not set out to write a series of books about the history of the Irish Kennedys. Had I conducted a feasibility study into such a project it would not have made the grade. Had I known of the travel and time and effort and the personal expense that was to be involved the detailed history of the Irish Kennedys would have gone unwritten.
Fortunately over the years I had developed the skills to bring it all together. Using my computer ability I was able to type every word, complete the artwork and set up every book ready for sending to the printers. Most of all, however, the driving force was deep inside me to ensure that the history of the Irish Kennedys would not be forgotten.
Many people have contributed to my efforts to preserve and foster the history of the Irish Kennedys and I am deeply indebted to them all. My sons Sean and Laurence have provided significant support in a number of ways. Their strong interest in their Kennedy history has manifested itself in the technical and administrative support so important for a project like the Irish Kennedy books.
Brian Patrick Kennedy
