Back to the Dictionary of Irish Biography

Earlier this week I visited Cultra Manor at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.  The house, which is being refurbished, was built at the start of the 20th century by Sir Robert John Kennedy (1851-1936), a great Ulsterman, a British diplomat and a member of an old Ulster-Scots family.

Today I looked in the Dictionary of Irish Biography to see what it said about Kennedy but was disappointed to find that he was one of the folk omitted from the DIB.  Neither was here any mention of his uncle Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy (1810-1883), who was a British colonial administrator and served as governor of a number of British colonies - Sierra Leone, Western Australia, Vancouver Island, Hong Kong and Queensland.  Those are two surprising omssions, especially as there is a good article on Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

I understand that when work on Cultra Manor is ocmpleted there will be an exhibition in it about Sir Robert Kennedy and the Kennedy family and I presume that it will include a section on Arthur Kennedy as well.