‘The Irish Kennedys’ are a set of 6 volumes of books witten by Brian Patrick Kennedy and are available to purchase online

Here are links to associated  website and blog:

Thank you so much for the wonderful book The Irish Kennedys. The book is well researched and I commend you on your hard work and dedication. I hope you continue on with much success in the future. You are to be applauded for your outstanding work.

Senator Edward M Kennedy

I have just finished reading the 498 pp second edition of the book ‘The Irish Kennedys’ written by Australian Brian Patrick Kennedy. Brian is to be congratulated on a truly definitive piece of work which wonderfully combines the ancient genealogy and history of the Kennedys from their origins in south west Ireland over one thousand years ago, with his own personal quest to trace his roots.

The book contains a bumper 58 (!) chapters which cover the rise and decline of the family right up to their suppression and dispossession under Cromwell and their eventual emigration overseas. Yet oddly I find the later chapters, where Brian attempts to bridge the gaps in the records to trace his line back to the first Irish Kennedy, by far the most thrilling. It is often said that ‘genealogy is not a spectator sport’, this book disproves that once and for all. What a shame that, when their old house in Ireland is found in a state of abandon, negotiations to regain ownership never come to fruition.

When the book went to press the Trinity College Dublin Irish DNA project was in progress but had not yet reported, and gets a brief mention at the beginning of Brian’s book. As I have mentioned elsewhere, the report included DNA tests for over 60 male Irish Kennedys and I believe this, along with the rise of the commercial DNA testing companies, will open up many new chapters in the story of the Kennedys of both Ireland and Scotland. It would provide an excellent starting point for that Third Edition.

If you are an Irish Kennedy, the book is a must. If you are a Scottish Kennedy, give it a read too and find out about our brothers across the water. It seems that no-one really knows right now whether the two Kennedy families are connected or not but our common name means we ought to be interested in each other. Maybe someone will step up to the plate and write an equivalent book about the Scottish family.

Ian Kennedy, Glasgow, Scotland.

In the first edition, as well as recounting the Kennedy story over a period of a thousand years, he was able to extend his individual family history from Australia to the homestead in Ireland from which his ancestors emigrated. In the new and expanded version of the book he has managed to link his own family tree to the ancient Kennedy genealogies. He is satisfied that every link in the chain can stand up to scrutiny. The book is likely to attract interest well beyond the Kennedy clan.

The quality of his research and the bridging of the all too often impossible seventeenth-eighteenth century gap, marks this book as a template for family historians.

Tony McCarthy (Irish Roots Magazine

It was very kind of you to share your book with me. I hope it is a great success for you.

Jean Kennedy Smith (US Ambassador to Ireland)

I do congratulate you on producing an important book of reference for present and future generations. The Irish Kennedys is a work of art.

Roger Chatterton-Newman (Author of “Brian Boru, King of Ireland”)

This volume brings together in one convenient package most of the early resources any O’Kennedy researcher would want to see. Anyone interested in the O’Kennedy clan history would find this work of immense use.

Andrew J. Morris, Genealogist, USA.

Is your name Kennedy? If it is you’d be extremely interestred in a book called ‘The Irish Kennedys’. It is well researched (apparently over 20 years) and a good read even if you aren’t a Kennedy.

Janet Reakes, Family Trees Column, The Sunday Mail, Brisbane, Australia.