Dunkerrin's Séan Kenny marks his 90th Birthday

Ninety wonderful years have passed
With so many memories to treasure
You deserve a wonderful day
Full of happiness and pleasure.

The above quotation is my wish for a well-known personality in the parish of Dunkerrin, Mr Seán Kenny, who celebrated his 90 th Birthday on October 31, 2021.

Seán is the fourth born in a family of five to John and Josephine Kenny (nee Quinlan). He had three older sisters Margaret (Babe) Toohey, (Loughawn), Joan Kennedy, (Irishtown) my mum and Mary Larkin (Ballinakill) and a younger brother Pat.

Seán grew up in the rural setting of a picturesque thatch family home at a crossroads called the ‘Four Roads’, Loughawn, situated on the then main Dublin-Limerick road between Dunkerrin and Moneygall.

Over the years many tourists called to the Kenny home to photograph the thatch house and on May 5 1973 it was on the front cover of the Irish Farmers Journal. Across from the Kenny home was the birth place of Kate Shelley (1863-1912) the girl who emigrated to America to the state of Iowa and risked her life to warn a passenger train of a wreck ahead. The story of Kate has been well documented over the years.

Seán went to Lisduff National School where his teacher was Mrs Harton and then he went to Dunkerrin National School when it opened in 1943, and his teacher was Mr Seamus O’Riain.

The Kenny home was rich in love, knowledge, friendship and a welcome for everyone and Seán got the education of life working on the family farm with his parents, then with his brother Pat and then with his nephew Seamus and even to this day has kept well abreast with all the modern farming trends and reads the Irish Farmers Journal every week.

Seán lived through the Economic War of the 1930s and remembers in 1939 at eight years old walking cattle to the fair in Roscrea with his Dad and being hungry.

Seán said to his Dad that he was hungry and his Dad said ‘Seán, we got no sale for the cattle, we well be hungry for a while’ and walked the cattle home again. At that time everyone was poor and had very little. Seán remembers the Second World War 1939-1945 and the use of ration books, food was scarce and life was tough. The summer of 1946 was one of the wettest on record and resulted in a disastrous harvest and then the early months of 1947 saw very heavy snowfalls and a bitter cold spell almost grinding the country to a halt.

Seán recalls milking the cows by hand, separating the milk, churning the butter and seeing a line of horse and traps at the ‘Four Roads’ when the women of the hinterland would come with buckets of butter and eggs and get the CIE bus to Roscrea and sell their produce to buy some messages (we call groceries today) to fed their families.

Then carry home the messages on the bus to the ‘Four Roads’ and head home on the horse and traps. On hot summer days a leaf of cabbage was placed over the butter to prevent it from melting.

Seán remembers rural electrification coming to the parish but it was nearly 1960 before it arrived in Loughawn. Having electricity meant no more milking by hand and advanced to a bucket plant milking machine, but if two neighbours were milking the cows at the same time the clusters started falling off the cows because the electricity was not strong enough.

As time went on farmers got their own transformers and advanced to pipe line milking machines and today some farmers have advanced to rotary milking machines. Seán has witnessed milking one cow by hand to milking fifty cows at a time with a rotary milking machine.

Seán tells of working with horses in the fields doing everything from ploughing, tilling, sowing and harvesting the crops. Saving the hay and bringing it home with the horse and hay-car.

Seán was well known all over the parish and beyond for his horse and sprayer for spraying the potatoes to keep away the blight. The sprayer covered three drills at a time and it was very important to have the correct mix and that the under leaf also got sprayed.

Seán remembers the first tractor which had iron-clad wheels to come to the area and then tractors with tyres on them. Over the years he has witnessed working with the horse to the horse-power of tractors that they are today.

How fitting on Sunday, September 26 that Seán was flagman for the Dunkerrin Church of Ireland Tractor Run fundraiser, which saw over one hundred and fifty tractors ranging from vintage to the most up to date models. Seán a teetotaller is a man of deep faith and attends mass weekly. The family rosary was part of the Kenny family a proud tradition Seán carries to this day with a great devotion to Our Lady. He has visited Lourdes and visits Knock every year.

Seán is an avid reader of all the local papers and publications and is an ‘encyclopaedia of knowledge’. Over the years many people have sought his help on local history and tracing family roots. Seán is a member of Dunkerrin Parish History Society and is looking forward to the launch of Under Crimblin Hill Volume 3.

Seán’s Aunt Annie and Uncle Paddy Ryan and cousins Bridget (Girlie), Josie, Ena and Patricia lived a short distance from the Kenny home and it was Paddy who taught the Kenny children to play cards. Seán and Joan went on to be avid card players, playing whist, forty-five and twenty-five. Seán recalls playing cards in people’s houses and remembers when card games moved to local halls and Seán is known far and wide attending card games.

The Kenny home had a set of skittles and on many a Sunday evening neighbours and friends came and had great fun playing skittles at the ‘Four Roads’. Seán also played hurling and has a great interest in Gaelic games and horse-racing.
Uncle Seán you have been privileged to have witnessed so many changes in life over the years and may you enjoy continued health and happiness for many years to come. I have been privileged to have you as my uncle – you are one in a million.

Kathleen Browne