Background
Kenny was born at Freaghcastle, near Milltown Malbay in County Clare, to the solicitor Michael Kenny and his wife Bridget, née Frost.
Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Kenny was born at Freaghcastle, near Milltown Malbay in County Clare, to the solicitor Michael Kenny and his wife Bridget, née Frost.
He attended Ennis College an Erasmus Smith school. Thom"s Irish Who"s Who states he attended Stonyhurst, and Trinity College, Dublin. This seems to be incorrect and all other contemporary sources confirm that he in fact attended Ennis School and Queen"s University
The family were major landholders. While serving at Westminster, he was called to the bar at Gray"s Inn in 1886 and at the King"s Inns, Dublin, in 1889. In 1899 he went bankrupt and his estates were sold official
He became a King"s Counsel in 1914.
Kenny was just 21 years of age when he was selected as the Home Rule League candidate for a by-election for Ennis in November 1882. Ennis"s Home Rule Member of Parliament Lysaght Finigan had resigned his seat on 15 September 1882, owing to ill-health.
According to Kieran Sheedy"s The Clare Elections (p 269),
The Redistribution of Seats Acting 1885 abolished Ennis"s separate parliamentary representation, with effect from the 1885 general election. The former two-seat Clare county constituency was divided for parliamentary purposes was split into the new single-member constituencies of East Clare and West Clare with one member to be elected in each division.
Kenny did contest either of the new Clare seats, standing instead in Mid Tyrone, where he was elected.
Kenny held the Mid-Tyrone seat from 1885-1895. Indeed, he suffered a black eye at the hands of a Parnellite member Pierce Mahony. Kenny retired from political life in 1895 and apart from his activities as a breeder of pedigree horses, cattle and sheep devoted himself to the practice of law.
He was appointed Senior Crown Prosecutor for County Kerry in 1916, and was appointed circuit court judge for Cork City and County in 1925, retiring in 1933.
Maurice Healy notes that his term of office had been extended due to the universal respect in which he was held. The Irish Times of 6 October 1941 published Matthew Kenny"s memories of Charles Stewart Parnell to mark the 50th anniversary of the latter"s death.
Matthew Kenny, initially a Parnellite Member of Parliament, was a cousin of William Kenny, a Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament The two cousins" tenures on opposite sides in the House of Commons overlapped between 1892 and 1895. Both were descended from Mathias Kenny of Treanmanagh, Kilmurry Ibricken and Dysert, Dysert, Company
Clare. Maurice Healy in his memoirs describes Matthew Kenny with great affection as a judge of exceptional dignity and integrity who was universally liked and respected.
His fault, if it was a fault, was the severity of his sentences.
However he continued to interest himself in political developments in Clare. When the Irish Parliamentary Party split in 1890, he opposed Parnell.
22nd United Kingdom Parliament. 23rd United Kingdom Parliament. 24th United Kingdom Parliament.
25th United Kingdom Parliament]
He was elected to the United Kingdom House of Commons at the age of 21, qualified as a barrister whilst still a member of parliament (Member of Parliament), and later became a judge in the Irish Free State.
According to Hugh Weir"s Houses of Clare (1999, p 131), Kenny was the youngest Member of Parliament at the time.