Relatives of local Military Cross recipient visit Tipperary Military Barracks
Local historian Michael Reynolds takes the Hennessy family on a tour of Nenagh
This week the weather has been fantastic in the town of Nenagh with pure sunshine and warm temperatures. During the sunny weekend, three generations of the Hennessy family whose ancestors resided in Nenagh Military Barracks arrived in town on April 25 to learn more about their family history. Brian Hennessy if the son of Edward Hennessy and Eileen (nee Ward) and grandson of Oscar Percy Hennessy. He was accompanied by his son Karl Hennessy and his grandson Sean Hennessy. They travelled over from England, where they reside in Warrington and Sean lives in Chester. Brian explains that growing up during his childhood in Liverpool he never really knew his father ‘Ted’, who had left them when he was very young and knew very little about his later life and that of his grandparents life in Tipperary.
Oscar Percy Hennessy (1882-1962) was married to Agnes Doran (daughter of ex-soldier Michael Doran) and they had two children: Edward ‘Ted’ Charles Reitz Hennessy (1913-1961) and Irene Agnes Hennessy (1919-2005). Oscar was a well-known figure in Nenagh during the First World War who was awarded the Military Cross (M.C.) for his actions ON No Man’s Land in May 1915 and whose father Philip Hennessy was the Barrack Sergeant at Summerhill in the 1890s.
Edward married Eileen in 1936 and their son Brian was born in 1941. With the Second World War, he continued the tradition of his father and grandfather by serving in the army. He was a Warrants Officer with the Liverpool Regiment and for his actions in Burma he was recommended for the British Empire Medal in 1947. Following his divorce from Eileen, he married Ingeborg from Hamburg in Germany. After the War he left the army and became a Colonial Police Officer in Sarawak, North Borneo (off the Coast of Singapore). Shipping records in 1960 showed that they planned to move to South Africa where he would be employed in the Civil Service. However they did not make it there as Edward died unexpectedly in 1961 in Hamburg. His wife Ingeborg remained there and appears to have been still alive even as far as 2019 with no further trace in records.
The last mention of Oscar Hennessy’s family during their lifetime in Nenagh was in 1931 where they were named as chief mourners at the funeral of Michael Doran in Liverpool which featured in the Nenagh Guardian. Oscar died in Liverpool 1962 at the age of 80 after being hit by a car outside a church. Agnes had died in 1948 and Irene passed away in 2005. No descendants of the Hennessy family remain in Nenagh to this day.
Their story had been forgotten about until recently. Michael Reynolds has done extensive research into the history of the Hennessy family of Summerhill and the Military Barracks over the past several years, having published an article in the Tipperary Historical Journal 2021, completing his MA History of the Family Dissertation on them in 2022 and presenting a lecture to the Nenagh Ormond Historical Society on their lives back in March 2025.
The Hennessy family first made contact with Michael through Ancestry in 2021, where Karl saw his great grandfather Oscar’s detailed family tree. Last month Sean Hennessy made contact with Michael about their plan to visit his two times great grandfather’s hometown and to learn more about their lives as Irishmen in the British Army. After spending the morning exploring the scenic parts of Lough Derg such as Garrykennedy, they met Michael at the Courthouse, surrounded by many parts of the town’s Historic Quarter. They first got to visit St. Mary’s of the Rosary Church, where Brian’s grandparents Oscar and Agnes were married in November 1912 and where four of Brian’s grand uncles and grand aunts Charles, Julian, Norah and Gladys Hennessy were baptised. They were amazed to see that the alter was the exact same as in the photo album Oscar had kept all these years.
Afterwards they got to visit the ruins of Nenagh Military Barracks at Summerhill, where Brian’s great grandfather Philip died suddenly in 1899 and 20 years later in the same building his aunt Irene was born in 1919. Oscar’s mother Julia (nee Kearney) struggled as a widow with young children to provide for and died from alcoholism at Nenagh workhouse in 1914 and is buried in an unmarked grave in a separate cemetery to Philip. She had been seen her sons left Nenagh to be educated at the Royal Hibernian Military School (RHMS) in Dublin and embarked for service in the South African War (1899-1902) and within a 5 year period had lost her husband and two of her children. Karl and Sean remarked that it was unfortunate the building had fallen into decay and perhaps something can be done to save it so other descendants of the hundreds of people who had stayed in the barracks from 1832 onwards could visit it.
They got the opportunity to visit the historic Nenagh Castle and see an entire 360 view of the town from the top. On their walk through town they got to see the Shane MacGown Mural in and learnt the church they had visited was the same place where his funeral for The Pogues singer was held in December 2023. During a meal in Andy Flynns, they were shown records by Michael copies of the civil registration documents and service records during army careers ranging from the 1870s until the 1940s. Brian explained growing up that it was his mother Eileen arranged for him to get employment at a shipping company in the Liverpool Docks and he has a vague memory of meeting Oscar in his later life.
Afterwards they left and as a parting gift a copy of the Tipp Journal which featured an article of Brian’s grandfather was presented to them. They explained that they really appreciated the information ‘Having a typically Irish name and Liverpudlian paternal grandparents, we were always curious about the origins of the Hennessy family and the circumstances that brought them to England. Upon meeting Michael, our expectations of what we might learn were totally exceeded by his encyclopaedic knowledge of our family and his passion for piecing together this sentimental sliver of history. I can absolutely confirm that the three of us feel tangibly closer to our Irish roots and have a newfound hunger to learn more about the family and broader Irish history.’
If anyone has further details about any families in Nenagh Military Barracks, photos or looking for information, feel free to contact Michael through the Facebook Group ‘Nenagh Military History’ or by email: [email protected]