Peter De Loughry - Part 2

He was a member of the first Senate, as was Lady Desart of Kilkenny, in 1918, which was the occasion of his election to Dáil Eireann as TD for Kilkenny.In 1925, he brought the Black Abbey bell back from the Market House at Dunlavin Estate where it had been used to summon the workers on the Estate.Alderman Peter De Loughry died at his sister’s residence Mrs Henry Mangan, Richmond Ave, Dublin, on October 24, 1931 aged 52 years.He voted for the approval of the articles of agreement of 1921 and was a member of the Cumann na nGaelheal, later known as the Fine Gael party.Richard De Loughry, who was a son of the fabled Peter, was an electrical engineer. He was the first Kilkenny man to volunteer for the Irish Army during The Emergency. He held the rank of ordinance officer with the Southern Command, a position, he held with distinction all through The Emergency.He relinquished the position in 1948 and returned to Kilkenny to take up the management of the family business in a hardware shop, petrol pumps and electrical components shop at 18 and 19 Parnell Street.At the time the foundry in New Building Lane was still operating with the famous Leahy brothers, Jeff and Jimmy doing the castings.Anna Teresa Hennessy became Richard De Loughry’s wife, better known as Ciss, to her friends. Ciss claims with conviction that she comes from one of the oldest native business families in Kilkenny.Her father, Pat Hennessy, was proprietor of a saddlery and harness shop at Rose Inn Street. Pat had a great singing voice and was a life long member of the Friary Choir. Pat, Ciss’s father had a butchers shop also at Rose Inn Street.Patricia De Loughry is the daughter of Richard who died a comparatively young man. She is a Gaelic scholar and schoolteacher at St Canice’s Co-Ed on the Granges Road. A foremost member of the Gaelic League, Patricia is totally committed to the restoration of the Irish Ianguage. She lives at Parliament Street with her mother Ciss, in a house that has been the family house for all of two hundred and twenty two years.

Courtesy of the Kilkenny PeopleDecember 2002
By Sean Kenny