04/06/2026
Mary Lenihan (sometimes spelled Linnehan) is JFK’s maternal great-great-grandmother.
Her line connects to the President through an intricate family dynamic where two first cousins from Bruff eventually had children who married each other in Boston.
The Marriage: In February 1828, Mary Lenihan married her neighbor, Edmund Fitzgerald, on Palatine Road just outside the town of Bruff.
The Daughter: In 1832, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Mary Ann Fitzgerald (JFK's great-grandmother). Tragically, it is believed Mary Lenihan passed away shortly after the birth.
The Migration: Following the Great Famine, Mary Ann Fitzgerald emigrated from Bruff to Boston, where she married Michael Hannon. Their daughter, Mary Josephine Hannon, would grow up to marry her second cousin, John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald (the famous Mayor of Boston).
The Legacy: "Honey Fitz" and Mary Josephine's eldest child was Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald—the mother of President John F. Kennedy.
The Recent Discovery of the Lenihan Homestead
For generations, the exact physical footprint of Mary Lenihan's life was lost to time. However, in November 2020, council workers clearing overgrowth for a new pathway on Palatine Road accidentally uncovered the hidden structural ruins of an 1820s farmhouse.
Local historians used 19th-century land registries and the 1833 Limerick Tithe Applotments to verify that this was the definitive Mary Lenihan homestead. Before this discovery, members of the Kennedy family (including Caroline Kennedy and Jean Kennedy Smith) had visited the general area, but this marked the very first physical evidence of the Lenihan family home still standing.
