Mary Kenny

Mary Kenny (born 4 April 1944) is an Irish journalist, broadcaster and playwright. A founding member of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement, she was one of the country's first and foremost feminists, often contributes columns to the Irish Independent and has been described as "the grand dame of Irish journalism".[1] She is based in England.[1]

Kenny in 2008

Early life

Mary Kenny was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her father was born in 1877.[2] She grew up in Sandymount,[3] and was expelled from convent school at age 16.[4] She had a sister, Ursula.[5]

Career

She began working at the London Evening Standard in 1966[6] on its "Londoner's Diary" column, later as a general feature writer, and was woman's editor of The Irish Press in the early 1970s.[7]

Irish Women's Liberation Movement

Kenny was one of the founding members of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement. Although the group had no formal structure of officials, she was often seen as the "ring leader" of the group.[6] In March 1971, as part of an action by the IWLM, she walked out of Haddington Road church after the Archbishop of Dublin's pastoral was read out from the pulpit, confirming that "any contraceptive act is always wrong",[6] saying "this is Church dictatorship".[8] In a follow-up letter to The Irish Times she explained her actions by saying Ian Paisley was right: "Home Rule is Rome Rule".[9]

In 1971, Kenny travelled with Nell McCafferty, June Levine and other Irish feminists on the so-called "Contraceptive Train" from Dublin to Belfast to buy condoms, then illegal within the Republic of Ireland.[10][11] Later that year she returned to London as Features Editor of the Evening Standard.[6]

"Ugandan discussions"

In 1973, Kenny was allegedly "disturbed in the arms of a former cabinet minister of President Obote of Uganda during a party", which led poet James Fenton to coin the euphemism "Ugandan discussions"[12] to mean sexual intercourse.[13] The phrase was first used by the magazine Private Eye on 9 March 1973,[14] but has been widely used since then and was included by the BBC in a list of "The 10 most scandalous euphemisms" in 2013.[12]

Works

Kenny has written for numerous broadsheet publications in Ireland and Britain, including the Irish Independent, The Times, The Guardian, The Irish Catholic, The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator. She has written books on feminism, Catholicism in Ireland and a biography of William Joyce.

Roy Foster described Crown and Shamrock: Love and Hate between Ireland and the British Monarchy (2009) as "characteristically breezy, racy and insightful".[15] She wrote the play Allegiance, in which Mel Smith played Winston Churchill and Michael Fassbender played Michael Collins in a performance at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival.

Personal life

Kenny married journalist and writer Richard West in 1974 and the couple raised two children: Patrick and Ed West, both journalists. Richard died in 2015.

Bibliography

Non-fiction
  • Women X Two: How to Cope with a Double Life (1978)
  • Why Christianity Works (1981)
  • Making the Family Matter: A New Vision of Expanded Family Living with Practical Ideas to Make it Work (co-authored with James Kenny) (1980)
  • Goodbye to Catholic Ireland: A Social Person and Cultural History (1997)
  • Death by Heroin; Recovery by Hope (1999)
  • Germany Calling: A Personal Biography of William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw. Dublin: New Island Books. ISBN 9781902602783.

Editor
  • The Long Road Back: The Story of a Triumph Over Sudden and Total Disablement by Bill Ellis

Fiction
  • A Mood for Love and Other Stories

See also

References
  1. "Welcome back silly season... You've been sorely missed". 18 July 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  2. Kenny, Mary (16 November 2022). "An Irish passport is highly prized – but it shouldn't be just a flag of convenience". Irish Independent. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  3. Kenny, Mary (24 April 2004). "Religion in schools – it was always a question of class". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 12 December 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  4. Kenny, Mary (4 December 2004). "Why the nuns sacked me". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  5. Boland, Rosita (5 November 2011). "New lady of the Áras". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 5 November 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  6. Bourke, Angela (2002). The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing: Irish women's writing and traditions. NYU Press. pp. 192–. ISBN 9780814799079. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  7. Kenny, Mary (1 August 2012). "Maeve Binchy shunned the dark side". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  8. Irish Times, 29 March 1971, p. 4
  9. Irish Times, 30 March 1971, p. 13
  10. The Irish Times, 18 October 2008, p. 14
  11. "Writer central to the women's movement". The Irish Times. 10 October 2008. Archived from the original on 1 November 2010. Retrieved 27 October 2008.
  12. Kelly, Jon (15 May 2013). "The 10 most scandalous euphemisms". BBC Online. Archived from the original on 29 April 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  13. McQueen, Adam. Private Eye: The First Fifty Years, London: Private Eye Productions, 2011, p. 286
  14. Room, Adrian. Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable, London: Cassell, 2000, pp. 714–5
  15. Roy Foster "Strong family feelings" Archived 25 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, The Spectator, 6 January 2010.
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