This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the very first Kennedy Clan  tour

The Gathering has gone from strength to strength in the intervening years, even surviving the Covid outbreak by arranging a very successful virtual gathering in 2020. This year sees a whole new and exciting development, as our 2026 gathering assumes a French twist.

A French TV producer is coming to Ireland for the weekend of 10^th to 12^th July, or more specifically coming to Nenagh to make a T.V documentary based around the Kennedy Clan Gathering. The documentary will be broadcast on the French T.V station, Channel M 6. The producer, Alyssa Makni, has a  9pm slot on Sunday evenings and has a regular viewership of over 2 million people.

If you are a Kennedy or if you have any Kennedy connection, then you are more than welcome to join us  at any stage over the weekend.

Events kick off at 3pm Friday 10^th in the grounds of Nenagh Castle where Kevin will talk to us on the history of the castle.  From there we cross the road to The Heritage Centre. Committee member Pat Kennedy will highlight some of the historical records on display, while visitors will have time to peruse the many photographs, old maps, family histories and scrolls at their leisure. Local guide, Ger will also recount the history of the gaol and facilitate tours of the old gaol.

Next stop is the Abbey Court at 7.30pm for a series of free presentations and talks on various aspects of Kennedy history. The focus will be on audience participation, with information and casual interaction in equal measure over a cup of tea. With  Kennedys coming  from Australia, New Zealand Switzerland, U.K and U.S.A. as well as from many parts of Ireland, plenty of chat, tracing and reminiscing seems assured, both in The Garden Room and the Abbot’s Bar.

Saturday morning will see the group leave Nenagh by coach for a day trip to the J.FK Homestead in Dunganstown, Co. Wexford and onto New Ross for a tour of The Dunbrody, a recreation of an 1840’s  famine ship.

Sunday promises to be more restful. Kilkeary graveyard will be the venue at 4pm where Mattie Ryan  will talk about the families who were dispossessed from Lower Ormond to the higher slopes of Curreeney and their return journey to Kilkeary to their final resting places.

And then to round off the weekend in a fitting style, we will repair to Kennedys Pub, Killeen. This pub, in Kennedy ownership for over 150 years promises to provide  a lovely mixture of Irish hospitality, Irish Music , Irish culture (maybe a game of 45) and genial company to our international visitors, our French TV crew and  all our Irish Kennedys.

Feel free to join us at any stage and for more information you can contact Tom at 0876545646.

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Details of all events for Gathering  from 10th to 12th July can be viewed  elsewhere in the News or Events section.

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Friday July 11^th .(Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh). E45 KA99

From around 6.30pm,  we will gather in the Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh for an informal meet and greet. Then at 7.30pm we will repair to a function room in the hotel, where we will have a few presentations. Prof. Mark Kennedy will give a run down on how to interpret all the information we get in DNA results, and how they can be best used to help make connections that perhaps are not available in written records.

We expect  to have  other speakers also,  yet to be confirmed.

We would love to afford our members an opportunity to address the meeting in a very informal manner.

What we have in mind is that people would make their own bits of family history known to members, and perhaps how they are connected to other members. We tend to spend a lot of time over the weekend doing this on a one to one basis, so we see this as a means of making ourselves known to a wider audience and strengthening connections. A little short written synopsis would be great for my records also.

Saturday July 12^th.

Nenagh Heritage Centre. Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Bunratty Medieval Banquet.

Nenagh Heritage Centre  E45 X588 ( 10.30am to 12.00 midday)  which houses the Irish Kennedy Heritage Display, doesn’t normally open on Saturdays. However at our request, Ger has kindly agreed to facilitate us on the 12^th July and we will have access to the Centre from 10.30 am for about an hour and a half. If you haven’t seen it already, it’s I think, a must see – if you have already been there, you will most likely spot something new that you may have missed on earlier visits.

Bunratty Medieval Banquet 5.30pm.

We have decided to reserve seats for the 5.30 banquet. This is a taste of Irish Culture – food, drink, music and dance with a little drama thrown in for good measure. This has to be pre-booked and pre paid. We have gone ahead and booked 40 places at the banquet – the cost is €71.50 per person for a group rate. I will need to have exact numbers attending two weeks in advance, by Friday 27^th June at the latest. At present 35 members have confirmed their intention to attend the banquet so if you haven’t already contacted me and you intend to come get in touch with me asap. If there are seats still available, we can book in more than the 40, but only while seats are still available so the sooner I know the better.

There is no need to worry about payment yet, I will be in touch with attendees nearer the time.

Bunratty Castle & Folk Park

As we will be finishing in Nenagh around 12.00 midday, and will be meeting for the banquet in Bunratty at 5.15pm,  members will have ample time to work up an appetite. We recommend a visit to Bunratty  Castle  and Folk Park. We don’t think it’s necessary to organise a group visit, as it is best enjoyed at one’s own leisure.

However,for people attending the banquet, there is a reduced entry fee of around €8 to the Folk Park.

For an idea of what’s in store for you  in Bunratty, click on the following link.

https://g.co/kgs/wm4NuEn

Looking forward to July and meeting lots of Kennedys.

Kind regards,

Tom

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At our Committee meeting just before Christmas we discussed some options for Clan Gathering 2025. The following were the results of our deliberations:

The Gathering will, as is now tradition, be held on the second weekend in July.

On Friday 11^th July we will gather in Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh around 6pm for an informal meet, greet and reminisce for our regular attendees and introductions for first time visitors.

Informalities done we will then retire to a meeting room in the hotel ( probably around 8pm) where Prof. Mark Kennedy will bring us up to date on his Irish Kennedy DNA research.

As many of you will know Mark has devoted a great deal of both his time and expertise in establishing connections between many different branches of the North Tipperary / East Limerick Kennedys, and this will be a great opportunity for Mark to bring us all up to speed on his work. Don’t be surprised if by the end of Mark’s presentation you discover you have more cousins than you thought you had before he began.

We are also hopeful that another eminent member of our clan – Professor Liam Kennedy, Queen’s University, Belfast and formerly  of Borrisoleigh  will take us on a  trip through his own Kennedy and Ryan ancestors with reference to the social and political changes that occurred through over 100 years of their family histories. There should be ample time afterwards to get even greater clarity on all topics discussed in the friendly environs of the Abbot’s Bar in the hotel.

I am personally really looking forward to these talks as they will undoubtedly help bring a deeper understanding and knowledge of my own Kennedy ancestry.

Saturday 12^th July

Our proposals for Saturday 12^th are as follows:

Saturday Morning  (at a respectable time)

Nenagh Heritage Centre and Irish Kennedy Display. For those who haven’t see this display previously, it’s a must see on your visit with its collection of copies of treaties hundreds of years old, family histories, photographs, genealogical charts and much more. We are hoping that the staff of the Heritage Centre will once again facilitate us as the Centre is not normally open on a Saturday. There will also, we hope, be a guided tour of the Centre which is the old Nenagh Gaol and has a wealth of history within its walls.

Saturday Afternoon.

Meet up in Bunratty Folk Park, Co. Clare in the afternoon.

Guided tour of Bunratty Castle followed by a leisurely stroll around Bunratty Folk Park.

Bunratty Castle is a 15^th century castle and is the seat of the O Brien Clan descended from Brian Ború, brother of Donnchuan from whom many of our Kennedys are descended.

Bunratty Folk Park stretches to over 25 acres and is basically a recreation of an Irish Village from the 1800’s. You will be able to visit rural farmhouses, village shops and craftsmen at work and much more as you get a taste of life in Ireland in the 19^th/ 20^th centuries.

Mention of taste, we then suggest that we return to the castle for a medieval banquet.

Having attended one of these a few years back I can heartily recommend this feast of food, drink (mead) and entertainment.

There are two important things to consider in our planning of the weekend.

Friday’s events will be free of charge as we just have to cover the rent of the meeting room.

However the tour of Bunratty Castle and Folk Park and the later medieval feast do naturally come at a cost – in the region of €90 for the two combined. The exact figure will depend on the number of us attending – the rate varies depending on the size of the group.

It will therefore be necessary to give them a reasonably accurate number beforehand so I would appreciate if you could notify me of your intended attendance in good time.

I do want to state again that we are in the preliminary stages of planning – there may well be changes as we go along, and there will also be a menu of places of interest that people can explore in their own time.

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Sometimes dreams really do come true and for me that’s exactly what happened. For years, I had “dreamed” of attending the annual Kennedy clan gathering in North Tipperary. I had tried figuring out how I would manage it on my own but had pretty much concluded it wasn’t going to work. Age has its challenges and traveling alone in a foreign country is difficult at best! But age also brings surprises and thus on my 80^th birthday my DREAM to attend the IRISH KENNEDY HERITAGE GROUP  ANNUAL GATHERING became a possibility. A gift…to end all gifts, from my children. Wow… I was on my way.

Early on July 5, my oldest son and I boarded a Delta plane headed for Shannon and eventually the village of Silvermines, Tipperary. My dream was beginning to come true. Saturday, Jim and I found our way to Toomevara and a visit with Patrick and Phyll Kennedy. Through DNA research we had connected months before. I almost had to pinch myself to believe I was sitting having tea with them. Sunday was the first day of the Kennedy Heritage Group event. The group traveled from Rody’s bar in Rearcross to nearby farms and on to Glencullloo and then to Killoscully and finally Toor before returning to Rearcross.  Jim and I lost our way initially but caught up with the group at Killoscully and enjoyed the absolutely fabulous celebration in memory of Dr. Henry Kennedy at Toor.

There is so much to be said about all of this but as I recall this day, it is the brilliance of the tiny villages ablaze with flowers and tidy streets that comes back to me. The event in Toor included lovely Irish music on the street provided by a group of young local musicians.

The evening at Chief Rody’s pub was amazing. I am sure there were close to 100 of us, visiting, sharing a Guinness or just taking it all in. Brian Kennedy’s latest book, “The Dispersal of the Irish Kennedys” was introduced, Mark Kennedy gave an update on his DNA research of the Irish Kennedys and of course there was music and Irish dancing. Returning to our lovely little B&B in Silvermines, I was filled with absolute delight. Such wonderful, grand people these Kennedys are!!!

The following Tuesday was the second day of celebration with the Kennedys. We gathered at the Nenagh Heritage Centre and spent several hours viewing the Irish Kennedy Heritage Display. A number of Kennedys (including myself) had provided pictures and stories of their Kennedy heritage and our dear Phyll Kennedy did a marvelous job developing the display area. To say that we were all very proud is putting it mildly. We also enjoyed a tour of the Heritage Centre historic period rooms and then we moved on to tour the beautiful Nenagh Castle. Jim and I took time later to visit with a recently acquired (DNA find) Tipperary Meagher cousin who just happens to be married to a Kennedy and Maureen believes our relationship is probably more Ryan than Meagher! So it goes in North Tipperary.

The Grand Finale of the IRISH KENNEDY HERITAGE GROUP’S  celebration was July 12. About 20 Kennedy cousins boarded a tour bus at Chief Rody’s pub in Rearcross and headed for New Ross and the Kennedy (JFK) Homestead. It was a grand group with many conversations going forward and backwards, to and fro as we traveled the roads of Tipperary, Limerick and Wexford counties. Is there anything more beautiful in this world than the fields and lanes of Ireland?

Enroute to New Ross we stopped and enjoyed light refreshments and tea and then journeyed on to New Ross. Patrick Grennan, a Kennedy family descendant, greeted us and gave us a charming and enlightening tour of the home and farm. AND…provided tea and cookies for us as we finished our tour. The remaining time allowed for a visit to the famine ship in the New Ross harbor. About 5:30 we boarded our bus once more and arrived at a lovely hotel high on a hill, Brandon House, where a large table was set waiting our arrival. Talk about SPECIAL! Wow, everything was splendid.

It was nearing dusk as we headed back to Rearcross and our group was quieted having been well fed and very well informed all the day long. These Kennedys keep going though and thus as we arrived in Tipperary town, Chief Rody announced we were going to have one more little stop at the Kickham pub just up the street. The absolute treat of the evening was having our bus driver, Sean Ryan, arrive at the pub with his accordion. Sean entertained us for about an hour and of course more than a few voices joined in the lilting Irish melodies. Could there possibly have been a more grand ending to just a magical three days with our Irish Kennedys?

So you see, DREAMS do come true…mine certainly did. And now the good news is that I will carry all these special people, places, green green fields and yes ancient cemeteries in my dreams forever.

By Sarann Ryan Slattery on her visit to Kennedy Clan Gathering 2019.

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If you’re  a Kennedy, or have Kennedy ancestry , then Saturday next 13^th of July 2024 is a date for your diary. On that day Kennedys from across Ireland will be joined by distant cousins from Australia to the United States and countries in between to retrace the steps of our ancestors in North Tipperary .We will gather at The Heritage Centre in Nenagh at 9.45am on the Saturday morning to view the recently updated Irish Kennedy Heritage Group Display housed in the Heritage Centre. You will be able to view a thousand years of Kennedy History in Upper and Lower Ormond from the time of Brian Ború right up to the present day. Genealogical charts covering 30 generations of Kennedy ancestry , copies of original land leases from as far back as the 1700’s and copies of ancient treaties between the Kennedys and the Butler lords are all on display. A local guide will take us on a tour of the Old Nenagh Gaol and talk us through the typical life of a prisoner in the olden days.

Following a break to allow for some free exploration of Nenagh town and its environs – the nearby historic centre and castle, we will reconvene at Garrykennedy Harbour for a tranquil cruise of Lough Derg. From there we will retire to Larkin’s Bar, Garrykennedy for an evening meal and a night-time of chat and relaxation

If you would like to join us on our tour, please contact Tom at 0876545646 or at  tom.irish kennedy heritage group@gmail.com

For more details look up The Irish Kennedys on Facebook or our website www.Irishkennedyheritagegroup.ie

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However the good news is that we are already planning our 2023 gathering.

In line with previous years we are provisionally planning on getting the Kennedy Clan together on the 2nd week in July; i.e. July 8th, 9th 2023.

We are hoping that many of our overseas members will be able to travel to North Tipperary at that time – however we are also aware that a particular date may not suit some people so we are also planning to facilitate those people by including a virtual segment to the gathering whereby members can partake through Zoom or similar digital platform.

We are still in the early stages of planning so I will keep you updated between now and then. If there are places of Kennedy interest that you would like included in our 2023 itinerary then feel free to let me know for our consideration.

In the meantime keep safe.

Slán agus beannacht.

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