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Mary Kenny (born 4 April 1944) is an Irish journalist, broadcaster and playwright. A founding member of theIrish Women's Liberation Movement, she was one of the country's first and foremostfeminists, often contributes columns to theIrish Independent and has been described as "the grand dame of Irish journalism".[1] She is based in England.[1]
Mary Kenny was born inDublin, Ireland. Her father was born in 1877.[2] She grew up inSandymount,[3] and was expelled from convent school at age 16.[4] She had a sister, Ursula.[5]
She began working at the LondonEvening Standard in 1966[6] on its "Londoner's Diary" column, later as a general feature writer, and was woman's editor ofThe Irish Press in the early 1970s.[7]
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 toThe Irish Times she explained her actions by sayingIan Paisley was right: "Home Rule isRome Rule".[9]
In 1971, Kenny travelled withNell McCafferty,June Levine and otherIrish feminists on the so-called "Contraceptive Train" from Dublin toBelfast to buy condoms, then illegal within theRepublic of Ireland.[10][11] Later that year she returned to London as Features Editor of theEvening Standard.[6]
In 1973, Kenny was allegedly "disturbed in the arms of a formercabinet minister ofPresidentObote of Uganda during a party", in her words 'snogging an intelligent African judge' (who had one leg, something she did not notice at the time; he was later murdered by Idi Amin), which led poetJames Fenton to coin the euphemism "Ugandan discussions"[12] to mean sexual intercourse.[13] Thephrase was first used by the magazinePrivate 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]
Kenny has written for numerousbroadsheet publications in Ireland and Britain, including theIrish Press,Irish Independent,The Times,The Guardian,The Irish Catholic,The Daily Telegraph andThe Spectator. She has written books on feminism, Catholicism in Ireland and a biography ofWilliam Joyce.
Roy Foster describedCrown and Shamrock: Love and Hate between Ireland and the British Monarchy (2009) as "characteristically breezy, racy and insightful".[15] She wrote the playAllegiance, in whichMel Smith playedWinston Churchill andMichael Fassbender playedMichael Collins in a performance on the 2006Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Kenny, along withÉamon Ó Cuív andFrank Feighan, is an advocate of theRepublic of Ireland returning to its membership of theCommonwealth of Nations.[citation needed]
Kenny married journalist and writerRichard West in 1974 and the couple raised two children:Patrick andEd West, both journalists. Richard died in 2015.
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