This article is from page 26 of the 2007-07-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
EXACTLY 160 years after he ar- rived in Kilrush dedicating his life to saving the poor of west Clare, Cap- tain Arthur Edward Kennedy was honoured by the local people.
At a ceremony on Sunday a bust of the late poor law inspector was un- veiled in the Vandeleur Garden, the home place of the family believed to have him removed from the town in Keel 0p
Fr John O’Shea donated the bust to Kilrush Town Council from Western aUUee tere
Captain Kennedy is regarded as a hero of the famine years in Kilrush.
Born in Down in 1809 he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and after- wards, his military career saw him posted to Corfu and Canada as a
captain in the 68th Regiment. He re- turned to Ireland and took up an ap- pointment with the Poor Law Com- mission, arriving in Kilrush in 1847.
When he arrived in the west Clare capital he was made aware of 6,000 notices to quit served and is quoted as saying the “whole district seemed swept of food” and he believed “a third of the population would be without food at Christmas, two thirds starving before February and by May 1848, there would be a total starvation.”
His first task was to deal with the overcrowding in the workhouse. There was room for 800 inmates in the workhouse but demand had swelled as evictions continued dur- ing the summer and autumn of 1847.
By November, 1,100 people were inmates at the workhouse, many of
these weakened by disease. Kennedy set about providing additional houses to deal with the influx and for a fin- ish he had opened six extra units.
Paying tribute to the local hero mayor of Kilrush Cllr Tom Clyne (Ind) said, “Kennedy was a profes- sional, a government official carry- ing out his instruction to the letter of the law. But he did not conform to the non-caring officialdom of the era. He was deeply upset by the events he witnessed every day, and he involved himself in all aspects of the fight to combat the hunger, disease, and (CFA Mm A ercLemWe: om ec Dee lor-UiLMmOLONM ENTS NA le eVee bss one
“Kennedy loathed the landlords in the area, and made some power- ful enemies, most notably Colonel Crofton Moore Vandeleur. He was involved in an incident with Vande-
leur in which he challenged him to duel.”
It is thought that Kennedy’s ene- mies in Kilrush may have influences his transfer from Kilrush to Kilken- ny in September 1850.
In a last gesture of humanitarian- ism he and his family donated clothes and other items to the local clergy for distribution to the poor.
After he left Kilrush, he had a long and international diplomatic career serving as governor of Gambia, Si- erra Leone, Western Australia, Van- couver Island, West Africa and Hong Kong. Kennedy returned to Aus- tralia in 1877 as governor of Queens- land. He never forgot his time in west Clare and is known to have sent money from Western Australia to Fr Moran CC for the poor of Kilrush in Keeley