Maurice Lenihan (1811 - 1895)

Born 8 Feb 1811 in Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland

Husband of Eliza (Spain) Lenihan — married Nov 1843 in County Tipperary, Ireland

Died 25 Dec 1895 at age 84 in Limerick, County Limerick, Ireland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Sally x [send private message]

Biography

Maurice Lenihan born on 5 February 1811 in St. Patrick's Parish Waterford, eldest of fifteen children (ten sons and five daughters) of James Lenihan, woollen draper (in Broad St., then the leading business area in the city), and Margaret Lenihan (née Bourke) from Carrick-on-Suir, where her family was also involved in the woollen trade. ^[1]

1833 he joined the Waterford Chronicle

1841, he moved to Limerick to join the Limerick Reporter.

1843, when he started working for the Cork Examiner

1843 he had moved to Nenagh and established his own newspaper, the Tipperary Vindicator.

Maurice married in November 1843 to Elizabeth Spain, a local Nenagh woman.

Children included:

1. Anastatia became a nun, Mother Anastasia Lenihan, F. C. J. of Bruff Convent
2. James
3. Maurice
4. Mary
5. Margaret died in the 1920's
6. Elizabeth
7. Ellen Agnes born about 1858, died in 1881
8. Harriet Patricia died about 1925, had lived for 50 yrs in Australia
9. Anne died in early childhood

Lenihan amalgamated the Tipperary Vindicator with the Limerick Reporter, which he purchased in 1849.

autumn 1848 Lenihan was a witness for the defence at the trial of Terence Bellew McManus^[2]

Mayor of Limerick in 1884 is best known as the author of the monumental History of Limerick which he published in 1866. ^[3]

Poverty, poor health, and personal tragedy dogged his final years. His newspaper became progressively unprofitable and he was forced to sell his books and manuscripts to the British Museum. Five of his children predeceased him.

Maurice Lenihan died 25 December 1895 at 23 Catherine st, Limerick, married 84 yrs old, proprietor of "Limerick Reporter" reported by son James Lenihan. ^[4] ... survived by his wife and four of his nine sons and daughters.^[5]

Buried in Mount St Lawrence cemetery, Limerick.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ Maurice Lenihan, contributed by Irwin, Liam https://www.dib.ie/biography/lenihan-maurice-a4789
2. ↑ "Maurice Lenihan: Historian of Limerick" by Francis Finegan in "Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review", Vol. 36, No. 141 (Mar., 1947), pp. 97-104 (8 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/30099692
3. ↑ "Limerick, its history and antiquities; ecclesiastical, civil, and military,from the earliest ages, with copious historical, archaeological, topographical, and genealogical notes" https://archive.org/details/limerickitshisto00leni
4. ↑ https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1896/05903/4675119.pdf
5. ↑ Maurice Lenihan papers https://www.limerick.ie/discover/explore/historical-resources/limerick-archives/archive-collections/maurice-lenihan-papers
6. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168458256/maurice-lenihan