Kenneally, Rev Daniel
REV. DANIEL KENNEALLY
December 7, 1957
Personal Info
- Date of Birth: 3 May 1883
- Place of Birth in Ireland: Ballylanders, Cloyne
- County: Cork
- Education: Mount Melleray Seminary, County Waterford and St Patrick’s College in Carlow
- Date of Ordination: 26 May 1912
- Place of Ordination: St Patrick’s College Chapel – Carlow, Ireland
Diocesan Appointments
- Assistant – St Mary’s Cathedral – 10/10/1912 to 3/6/1913
- Pastor – Immaculate Conception Parish – Danville – 3/26/1913 to 1953 and three missions in Anthony, Harper and Kiowa KS during part of that time.
Father Kenneally was the son of Daniel and Ellen (O’Brien) Kenneally. They were the parents of eleven children and Father was their eighth child. Two of his siblings were living in Rhode Island at the time of his death with the rest of them remaining in Ireland.
According to Father Kenneally’s Naturalization Citizenship Papers, he emigrated from Ireland to the United States, sailing on board the Majestic from Queenstown (Cobh) Ireland on 4 October 1912 and became a naturalized citizen 21 June 1920.
Father Kenneally inherited a new church in Danville, Kansas and took great pride in adding a parochial school, a convent for the Sisters of Saint Joseph, as well as a rectory. The Danville parish was a large structure accommodating 400 people in the auditorium and in 1910, his parish had 350 registered parishioners.
Following his retirement in 1953, Father Kenneally took a six-month vacation to Ireland. After returning to the United States for a few months, he returned to Ireland for four years until his death. Upon his return, Father bought a house in Cork City and called it “Danville” after the parish he established in Kansas and where he served as pastor for 40 years. Following his retirement, he often visited the sick in the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork City.
Prior to his death, he celebrated Mass almost daily in the Bons Secours Hospital and Convent close to where he lived in Wilton Lawn. His niece, Helen Crowley, daughter of Father’s youngest brother, Martin shared that when he celebrated Mass in his hometown church, he always left a half-crown (an iconic Irish coin) for the Altar server.
In researching Father’s background, contact was made with his Irish family. They were happy to share some pictures of Father standing next to his first car with a neighbor in 1914, a memorial stone he erected to honor his deceased parents and siblings in the old cemetery in Churchtown South near his birthplace and his final resting place.
- Date of Death: 7 December 1957
- Place of Death: Danville, Wilton Lawn, County Cork, Ireland
- Age of Death: 74
- Cause of Death: Coronary thrombosis
- Burial: Cloyne Cemetery, Cloyne, Ireland