Patrick Kennedy

Patrick Kennedy (early 1801 – 29 March 1873) During this period, Patrick went away briefly in 1813 to attend school at Shanowle near Taghmon, staying with his mother's relatives, but this lasted only one or two terms. Subsequently, he was schooled closer to home at Cloughbawn, in Clonroche townland. The school was run by the famous "Mr. O'Neill", and at first Patrick's classes were held at the Cloughbawn Parish Church, until a schoolhouse was erected by the landlord, Robert Carew. Patrick lodged at the home was Morgan Dunne, his room and board paid for by tutoring. The Cloughbawn school had high standards and Patrick would later commend it in writing. His studies there lasted until 1818 or late 1819.

In 1819 when he took up a temporary teaching post at Tombrick School vacated by a friend (O'Brien) who was going to attend the Teachers Training School at Kildare Place. In 1820 or 21, Kennedy himself went to Dublin to enroll in the teacher-training program at Kildare Place (officially called the "Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland"), and received such high evaluations that after completing the program c. 1821, he was not assigned to his landlord's school, as might have been expected, but gained employ at the Society itself as an instructor, or as Junior Assistant to the Superintendent, c. 1822. Later, at Le Fanu's encouragement, a full collection was published as Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (1866). The first included tale is "Jack and His Comrades," later reprinted by Joseph Jacobs. Kennedy was also assiduous about recording folklore for the sake of it being tradition deserving to be preserved, even in the cases of a particular ballad he did not have high opinion of, or the custom of irreverently playing games and singing ballad, for which he privately held reservations.

Bo Almqvist also compares Kennedy favorably to Thomas Crofton Croker as folktale collector, and although Kennedy did to add literary flair and contrived humour, or somewhat dwelled on stereotypes of the Irishman such as his love for alcohol, but did not take license and tamper with the tales in a major way compared with Croker. Kennedy's tales from County Wexford, mostly recalled from memory as told in English during his youth, are valuable since they preserve the folklore of a region that became somewhat neglected from folklore-collection subsequently in the 19th century.

List of works Under pseudonym of Harry Whitney Legends of Mount Leinster (1855).

As Patrick Kennedy Fictions of Our Forefathers (1859). Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts (1867). The Banks of the Boro a Chronicle of the County of Wexford (1867). Evenings in the Duffrey (1869). The Fireside Stories of Ireland (1870). The Bardic Stories of Ireland (1871).

Explanatory notes