Honey Fitz Theatre and the Kennedy Fitzgeralds (JFK) Bruff Lough Gur
I am interested in tracing the connection of JFK's Fitzgeralds lines to the Bruff Lough Gur area. JFK's mother Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was doubly related to the Fitzgeralds of Lough Gur or Bruff. Rose's father John Francis "Honey Fitz" married his Fitzgerald second cousin Mary Josephine "Josie" Hannon. Josie's mother was Mary Ann Fitzgerald (bapt 1832 Bruff) and her father was Michael Hannon of Lough Gur (b 1832). Honey Fitz's father was Thomas Fitzgerald (b 1823 Bruff). Tom Fitzgerald and Michael Hannan both emigrated to Boston together c 1850 and Michael married Tom's first cousin Mary Ann Fitz in Boston in 1854. Thus Rose's maternal grandmother Mary Ann Fitz and her paternal grandfather Thos Fitz were first cousins from Bruff, Limerick. Tom Fitz's parents were Michael Fitz (b c1795-1800 Bruff d 1823 Bruff (year son Thos was born)) and Ellen Wilmouth (b c1797 Bruff d 1875 Boston). Mary Ann Fitz parents were Edmund Fitzgerald (prob Lough Gur or Bruff 1798 d 1883 Boston) and Mary Linnehan (Lenihan) (d c 1832-35 Bruff or Knockainey). Thus, Rose Fitz's paternal great grandfather Michael Fitz and her maternal great grandfather Edmund Fitz were brothers from the Bruff-Lough Gur area. Their parents were James Fitzgerald and Hannah McCarthy who married in Bruff in 1793. Thus Rose Fitz Kennedy's family tree is strongly tied into the Bruff-Lough Gur area Limerick through the names of Fitzgerald, Hannon (Lough Gur), Wilmouth, Linnehan (Lenihan). Jean Kennedy Smith, the eighth child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy and sister to JFK was USA embassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998 and officiated at the re-opening of the community centre and naming it the "Honey Fitz Theatre"in honour of her grandfather. Jean Kennedy Smith must have been aware of the strong connection with the Fitzgerald and Hannan families with the Bruff Lough Gur area. Does anyone have further information on the possible townland of the JFK Fitzgeralds in the Bruff area (possibly Bruff or Lough Gur Parish). My ggrandmother Margaret Fitzgerald was born Bruff c1800 could perhaps be a sister of the JFK Fitzgerald brothers Michael (c1795-1800) and Edmund (1798). Margaret Fitz married Thomas Dineen in Bruff in 1831, a year after St Peter and Paul's was built in 1829 and their son Michael Dineen emigrated to Victoria in the 1850s. The family of the Late Tom Dineen of Patrickswell are also descendants of Margaret Fitzgerald and Thomas Dineen.
