John Kenny (Clan-na-Gael)

John Kenny

John Kenny (1847–1924) long-time member and multi-term president (1883, 1914) of the Clan-na-Gael, which supplied support to the rebels in Ireland, culminating in the Easter Rising. John Kenny was a life-long close associate of John Devoy, having been born near Devoy's hometown, been a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and having worked very closely with Devoy in New York for decades. Under the cover of personal and business trips, he served as liaison between the "Home Office" (the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Ireland) and the Clan-na-Gael. In 1914 he served as the Clan's envoy to Berlin to present the Clan's proposal that Germany sell arms to the Irish, who would then stage a rebellion against their common enemy, England. On his return to New York he stopped in Dublin to inform Thomas Clarke.[1][2] He returned to Ireland to deliver money for the guns and to bring back messages from the I.R.B.[1]

  1. ^ a b John Devoy, Recollections of an Irish Rebel (Shannon Ireland: Irish University Press, 1969) 403–404.
  2. ^ Peter DeRosa, Rebels – The Irish Rising of 1916 (New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1990) 41.