The late Dan Kennedy Dan Kennedy of Coneyborough, Celbridge, President of the Kildare Kerry Association, deeply respected by Kerry-born folk and by the wider community in Co. Kildare, has gone to his eternal reward in his 86th year. Born in Tubber, Lispole, Co. Kerry in 1920, during the Papacy of Benedict XVI. Dan left his beloved Kerry home, overlooking the Short Strand in Lispole, to come to Kildare in 1937, where, initially, he worked with his former Kerry neighbour, the late Maurice Hanifin, who had been farming at Turnings, Straffan since 1929. Dan later went to England but he returned to Hanifin's during the years of World War II; and he subsequently set up his own business in Celbridge. Prior to going to England Dan had made the acquaintance of his future wife Mollie O' Reilly, when she attended a football match in which he was playing for Ardclough. They renewed their friendship on his return from England, married in 1951, and together they raised six children who have matured to bear testimony to the loving parenting provided by Mollie and Dan. In 1965 Dan was among the group of Kerry people living in Kildare who joined together under the leadership of Maurice Hanifin to set up the Kildare Kerry Association. Thus there was brought into being an organisation that was effectively the first Gaelic Games Supporters Club, since the primary objective of the Association was to raise funds to be used for the support of the training of the Kerry senior football team. In common with his fellow Association members Dan was a great lover of Gaelic football. He played for Ardclough as a young man, but throughout the sixty-eight years that he lived in Kildare he was a loyal and passionate supporter of Kerry football. The Association that he helped to found became a focal point for Kerry-born Kildare residents and their families and the annual get-together were looked forward to with great anticipation and were talked about for months after the event. Dan served the Association firstly, as a Committee member; later as Chairman, and he was President from the 1980's until his death. The enormous affection and regard in which he was held were reflected in the tribute evening that was held in his honour in the Setanta Hotel in Celbridge last April. Dan was a lovely man of a generous disposition, whose distinctive physical characteristic was the great mane of snow-white hair with which he was endowed. He was a raconteur who delighted in having a 'good year'; and he was a reciter of comic verse. He was an engaging man in whose company it was a delight to be; and he had the gift of being able to lighten the weightiest situation by his whimsical observation of the ridiculous. his greatest joy was his family to whom he was a loving husband, father and grandfather. The world is a better place because of the eight-five years he had lived up to the last week of Advent 2005. He died while visiting at the home of his daughter in Tralee. His removal to St. Patrick's Church in Celbridge, as the Wren Day was being celebrated in Corca Dhuibhne, and his burial in Donacomper Cemetery, Celbridge were attended by large numbers of people, demonstrating the esteem in which he and his family are held. He was laid to rest beside his beloved Mollie, who pre-deceased him in 2003. He is survived by his daughter, Mary, Catherine, Berna and Jacinta; and by his sons, John and Ultan; by his daughters-in-law, sons-in-law and his grandchildren; by his brother Thomas, and by his nieces and nephews. Guidhimid rath De ar a hanam dilis, Chriostuil. Courtesy of the Kerryman 26 January 2006 Tweet

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