The Kennedys of America came from the O’ Cinneide clan, whose most celebrated member, Brian Boru, was also a legendary leader.
For centuries, the clans followed the Pagan rituals of the Druids, who worshipped various gods of nature. But with the arrival of St. Patrick, Ireland became more catholic, and also more political.
Brian Boru, the chief of the O’ Cinneide clan defeated and expelled the Danes who had ruled Ireland for 200 years. And in doing so, he earned the title Ard Ri, or “High King.”
Under Boru’s governance, he encouraged the arts, science, and religion, and returned property taken by the Danes, to the clans who had owned it by right.
But when Boru died, Ireland again became vulnerable to foreign powers. In 1169, the Norman barons of England invaded, opening the door for what would be centuries of British rule.
This particular invasion received the blessing of Pope Hadrian IV, who happened to be the only English pope in history.
He decreed that the England’s King could seize Ireland as long as the church received one penny for each Irish house taken.
Under Norman rule, the Irish lost their own lands, and laws were passed that made them social outcasts.
During this time, the Gaelic O’ Cinneide was Anglicized to O’ Kennedy, then later, the O was dropped to what is now just Kennedy.
The family of the former king of Ireland moved to the south, where they were reduced to serfdom, working as tenant farmers on land they would never own.
When Henry the Eighth broke ties with Rome to found the Church of England, Ireland was thrown into turmoil, because Ireland was still very much Catholic.
Further invasions, slaughters, and repressive laws were enacted to stamp out ‘popery.’
Catholics were not permitted to send their children to school, to keep more than a third of their crops, to own a horse, a wagon, or a sword.
For the Kennedy’s, and for all Catholics in Ireland, these laws effectively eliminated any hope of ever reclaiming the land they once owned.
The Kennedy land had been given to the Tottenham family in England.
Compared to other absentee landlords, the Tottenham’s were mildly sympathetic to the Irish, but that did not stop them from collecting rent, which the Kennedy’s very much resented paying.
By 1798, the revolutions in America and France had inspired many Irish to rebel against the British and gain their independence once again.
Several Kennedy relatives took part in the ‘Rising of 98,’ in which some 30,000 Irish died. Some survivors left for America, while those who stayed, suffered many more decades of British oppression.
Things had hardly improved by the time the future President’s great grandfather Patrick was born in 1823.
During the potato famine, the meager plot of land they were allowed to till could no longer feed everyone. So at the age of 26, Patrick Kennedy set sail for America.
Asked to state his profession on arrival, this descendant of the High King of Ireland, wrote what would give him the best chance at employment, “Laborer.”
He soon found work making barrels, he married, and he started a family.
But in a cruel twist, the American dream of more prosperity evaded Patrick Senior. With a wife and four children, he couldn’t afford to be sick, or without work, and in 1858 he was both.
On November 22nd, a date that would have some significance in another century for another Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy died of Cholera, as penniless as when he’d arrived.
Related Story: Last of the Texas Wheeler Dealers