Can Kilkenny lay claim to Walt Disney?

Walt Disney, the creator and founder of the iconic Disney brand, was an ‘Aristocat’!

He is a direct descendant of a Kilkenny farmer.

His roots have been traced back to the parish of Freshford in County Kilkenny and to the townland of Clone.

This is where Walt Disney’s grandfather, Kepples Disney, lived on 33 acres of land and seemed to have a good standard of living.

Local historian and retired Kilkenny castle lead guide, Frank Kavanagh was doing some research when he stumbled across the famous name and he decided to dig further.

“I came across the rental book for the castle including Freshford,” Frank disclosed.

He discovered that Kepple Disney was born in early November 1832 and was Walt Disney’s grandfather but Kepple’s father was Arundel Elias Disney, who was Walt’s great-grandfather.

Elias was born in 1801 in Kilkenny and married a woman named Swan. Together they had 16 children.

The Disneys went to America via Liverpool, as did a lot of Irish emigrants, and they ended up in Ontario, Canada.

Kepple married Mary Richardson in the mid 1850s. The records show Elias, who was Walt Disney’s father, was born in 1859.
They moved on to settle in Kansas about 1880.

Elias was a common farm worker and eventually settled in Kansas City with his wife Flora and five children of which one was Walt who was born on December 5, 1901.

Walt came to Ireland back in 1946 to search for the Little People for research for his film Darby O’Gill And The Little People, but never visited Kilkenny.