County Kilkenny, highlighted.
Choose from topics below for stories of people, families, events and places connected to County Kilkenny’s past.
Vanishing Ireland (Kilkenny)
- Jimmy Bolger – How the Coal Carrier got Home from Bradley’s pub
- Michael Brennan Roe (1937-2023) – Coalminer, Castlecomer
- Jimmy Fanning (1942-2020), farm labourer & fiddler, Glenbally Valley
- Edward Hayes (1924-2012) – Houseman & Butler
- Johnny Hutchinson (1931-2021) – The Horse Coper
- Denis Lee (1923–2012) – Blacksmith, Sheep Shearer, Hackney Driver & Drummer – Inistioge
- Paddy Mullins (1919-2010) – The Quiet Man of Racing
- Angela Downey-Browne – Camogie legend
County Kilkenny – Family Histories
- Bunbury of Noremount and Johnstown
- Butler, Earl of Arran, referenced here
- Butler, Earl of Ormond
- Butler of Scatorish and Maiden Hall, via Dunboyne, and referenced here
- Chaigneau of Gowran
- Cuffe, Earls of Desart – Ghostly Women and Forgotten Heroes
- De Montmorency of Castle Morres, referenced here.
- Ponsonby, Earls of Bessborough
- Swift of Swifte’s Heath
- Tighe of Woodstock
People connected to County Kilkenny
- William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke (1147-1219) – The Greatest Knight
- Walter Butler & the Death of Wallenstein by Melosina Lenox-Conyngham
- Jonathan Swift – A Tale of Two Women
- George Bunbury (1747-1820), MP for Thomastown
- John Kearney, Bishop of Ossory, ancestor of Barack Obama, referenced here.
- Captain Benjamin Bunbury (1772-1855)
- Charles Bianconi (1786-1875) – The Man who put Ireland on Wheels
- Richard Butler (1794-1862), Vicar of Trim and Dean of Clonmacnoise
- Daniel Robertson, an American Architect in Ireland
- Ellen Bischoffsheim, Countess of Desart – see here.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) – A Study in Green
- Mabel Esmonde Cahill (1863-1905), US Open Champion
- Michael ‘Ducksie’ Walsh (1966-2016) – All-Ireland Gaelic Handball Champion
- Willie Mullins – Commander of the Turf
- Gilbert Butler (1910–2002) – Gilbert, my grandfather, was one of Ireland’s last gentlemen farmers. He was also President of the Royal Dublin Society. I lived with him during the latter years of his life. I’m working on a story of Gilbert’s family, having completed one for his wife Noreen Colley (see here). This will also take in their cousin and close friend Elizabeth Bowen, as well as Gilbert’s brother, the essayist Hubert Butler.
- James Butler (1942-2020) – The Quiet Man
- Gilly Butler (1936-2025)
- DJ Carey – The Dodger
Places in Kilkenny
- Butler Gallery, Kilkenny
- Clogh – Village at a Crossroads
- Gowran
- Lenehan’s Bar, 10 Barrack Street, Kilkenny
- Somers Pub, Clogh
- Kilkenny City – Historical Tales for Past Tracks and Maxol
- Thomastown
Articles with a Kilkenny Connection
- John Street: The Forgotten Cult of St John the Baptist
- Normans on the Irish Waterways
- The Cistercian Order in Ireland
- Ireland’s Wine Geese
- The Night of the Big Wind, 1839
- Inventors of County Kilkenny
- Hubert Butler & The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
- The Christmas Truce, 1914 – An Irish Perspective
- Maxol – The History of an Irish Family Company
- The Irish and the White House
- Forty Years of Farming by Gilbert Butler (c. 1967)
- Vive la Difference! Thoughts on Ireland inspired by a meeting with the artist Gottfried Helnwein and a public apology to Hubert Butler. (2001)
- Kilkenny City – Cool for Cats
- Bob Dylan – Kilkenny 2001