Groups audience:
Kenny/Lynott/Coughlan, Clogher, Co. Westmeath.
Griffith Valuation 1854,Barony of Kilkenny West,Parish of Noughaval,Union of Ballymahon,Townland of Clogher, Co. Westmeath.Tenant was Francis Kenny.The Landlord was Charles Lennon. Kenny’s House - Creggy Lower
This homestead was built about 1840. Donal Ruadh Kenny was born here about 1870. He was a great friend of famous Fenian poet John Keegan Casey otherwise known as “Leo”. It is believed he wrote his finest poems here and he justly bears testimony to the picturesque beauty of the locality in this song of great sweetness:
In leafy Tang the wild birds sang -
The brown light lay on Derry’s heather;
But years have passed since we the last
Sat courting in the summer weather;
The tender light of stars at night,
That soothes the wanderer so weary,
Could only show the silvery glow
That lit your glance, my darling Mary.
“It was in this house under the hill that the dance was held when Donal Ruadh was going to America and where he bade farewell to Mary”
A kiss upon her brow of snow,
A rush across the moonlight meadow,
Whose broom clad hazel, trembling show
The mossy boreen wrapped in shadow;
Away o’er Tully’s bounding rill,
And far beyond the Inny river;
One cheer on Carrick’s rocky hill,
And Donal Kenny’s gone forever.
Note: 1n 1858 Joseph Kenny was born to Bridget Mulvihill and Frank Kenny
1901Census
Bridget Kenny was an 80 year old widow. She was a farmer. She was unable to read.She was born in Longford. Her 60 year old son William was also a farmer.William’s wife Mary was aged 50. Thomas Sparks was their 30 year old unmarried servant. They were all born in Co. Westmeath and could read and write. The Valuation Revision Books show that William Kenny leased the property in 1873, In 1878, the property was leased by Bridget Kenny and by William Kenny in 1902.
.1911 Census
Mary Kenny was now a 58 year old widow and head of the family. She was a farmer and shop keeper. Visiting with her on Census night was her niece Mary Kate Lynott, aged 30 who was married and born in Co Roscommon. Also present were Anne Kate Lynott, aged 2 years born in Co. Roscommon and Thomas Patrick Lynott aged 10 months. They were Mary’s grand niece and grand nephew. Also present was Thomas Feeney, a 24 year old, unmarried farm servant born in Co. Westmeath who spoke English and Irish.
In the 1920/30s the son (Joseph) and daughter (Mary Margaret) of the aforementioned Mary Kate Lynott and Thomas Lynott (member of RIC Rooskey) came to live at this property. Mary Margaret better known as Dottie married Anthony McCormack of Tonlagee/The Three Jolly Pigeons/Gap House Moate in St. Mary's Tang on 13.01.1937 (Fr. Plunkett officiating). Dottie died at the Gap House Moate two years later in 1939 and was buried in Ardagh cemetry. Joseph worked as a baker in Athlone before emigrating to Boston (U.S.A.) in the late 1940s. He married there and is survived by his family in the Boston area.
During the 1930s and 1940s the school children walking home along this road use to stop for a cool glass of water from the well.
