Fascinating new links between our Kilkenny and Kilkenny, Minnesota

An in-depth exploration of historic links between Kilkenny and its namesake in Minnesota, USA, is revealing some fascinating details long-forgotten.

You might remember a recent article the Kilkenny People covered on American professor John Portmann.

If you missed it, Portmann is believed to be one of the first known United States citizens to gain Irish citizenship based solely on his DNA ancestry.

Astonishingly, further research revealed that he also had huge links to both our own Kilkenny and Kilkenny in Minnesota.

Prof Portmann’s great-grandfather James Matthew Delehanty was born here in Kilkenny in 1839.

As a nine-year-old boy, he emigrated to the United States with his parents during the Great Famine.

Prof Portmann understood that the family settled near Minneapolis, Minnesota and with other settlers established a town called Kilkenny, Minnesota.

The story published in the Kilkenny People caught the attention of Kilkenny Minnesota city clerk Janice Sellner and our own Mayor of Kilkenny, Andrew McGuinness.

Mayor McGuinness has been in Kilkenny, Minnesota in recent days and has visited the grave believed to be the final resting place of James Matthew Delehanty.

The mayor, Ms Sellner and other local officials are hoping these links can help deepen the relationship between both Kilkennys.

Ms Sellner also confirmed that further research is being conducted into other graves in the area where settlers are believed to have originated from Kilkenny, Ireland.

This is a major development for the city of Kilkenny, Minnesota (who recorded a population of just 148 in the 2020 United States Census).

Mary Flood of Kilkenny Family History is also doing further research into the ancestry of people in Kilkenny, Minnesota.

She previously documented in detail the story of two local men from the parish of Paulstown (Patrick Shortall and Daniel Walsh) who emigrated to Minnesota and played a role in establishing Kilkenny, Minnesota.

Then there was Dennis Doyle, another Kilkenny man who reputedly taught Kilkenny, Ireland-born Bishop Ireland (an American religious leader who was the first Roman Catholic archbishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota (1888–1918).

In the meantime, the plot continues to thicken, and the connection between the two Kilkennys is only getting deeper.

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