Mary Kenny
Journalist, Author, Broadcaster and Playwright

Mary Kenny was born in Dublin, the youngest of four, went to convent school – and left school at 16 - lived in France, became a reporter on the London Evening Standard and moved back to Ireland where she was a founder-member of a ground-breaking Irish feminist movement in 1970 (which also produced Mary Robinson, subsequently President of Ireland). Later, Mary returned to London, but she still spends part of her working life in Dublin. In the 1990s, she graduated with a mature degree in French studies at Birkbeck College, London University.

She has spent her working life as a journalist, and writes for a variety of newspapers in Dublin and London, including The Irish Independent, The Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Spectator, as well as the religious press, but in the 1990s turned increasingly to books on historical themes. She published a social history of Ireland in the 20th century in 1997 Goodbye to Catholic Ireland (now used as a teaching text in universities in Ireland and the United States), and in 2003, her biography of William Joyce was published. This was described as “an absorbingly elegant study” in The Guardian, and “an enthralling biography…[which] brings a humanity to a demonised figure” by The Irish Times. It is in the process of being made into a feature film by Haas-Silver-Levene Productions with Giovanni Ribosi as Haw-Haw. Mary has also written the biographical essay on Lord Haw-Haw for the Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Europe, to be published later in 2006.

Her play about Winston Churchill and Michael Collins set in 1921, Allegiance, was very well received at Edinburgh in 2006, (starring Mel Smith as Winston Churchill), and a West End production is at the planning stage.

Mary Kenny is married to the writer Richard West and they have two adult sons, Patrick and Edward West, both of whom are journalists. Mary is listed in Who’s Who, the British reference publication on people of influence, and is an experienced speaker and broadcaster.

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