Maurice Lenihan Papers, 1759-1875

Reference code: IE LA P4

Extent: 2 Boxes

Scope & Content

Correspondence (1841 - 1862) which consists of letters regarding his work as a journalist, a historical researcher and highlight his relationship with the clergy and Irish nationalists.

Historical sources and research notes (1759-1864) which includes notes relating to the history of Limerick and Tipperary, including chapel in Grange, county Limerick.

Scrapbook (1857 - 1875) consists of newspaper cuttings and correspondence relating to historical sources and topics.

Reminiscences of Thomas Steele and of Libel Cases records Lenihan's personal memories of the nationalist politician Tom Steel and memories of Lenihan's own legal entanglements.

Practical Suggestions on the Improvement of the Navigation in the Shannon (1828)

Research Notes About Killaloe, County Clare

Subjects

Cashel, County Tipperary, Catholic Church, Clonmel Advertiser, Health, Historian, Irish Nationalism ,Journalist, Killaloe, County Clare, Leahy, Patrick,
Lenihan, Maurice, (1811-1895), historian, Limerick Corporation, Limerick History, Limerick Reporter, Mayors of Limerick,Newspaper proprietor, Oral traditions, Steele, Thomas, Tipperary Free Press, Tipperary Vindicator, Waterford Chronicler

Creator(s)

Maurice Lenihan

Biographical / Historical Note

Maurice Lenihan was born on 5 February 1811 in St. Patrick's parish, Waterford. His father was a woollen draper from Waterford, while his mother was from Carrick-on-Suir, although her family was originally from Limerick.

In 1823 he was sent to Carlow College as a lay-student, where he showed great ability in the classics and in modern languages, though not in history. In 1831 he spent his summer holiday with a Mr. Hackett of Clonmel, a cousin, who was the editor of the Tipperary Free Press, and it was in this newspaper where he started his career as a journalist.

In 1833 he joined the Waterford Chronicle and eight years later, in 1841, he moved to Limerick to join the Limerick Reporter. The Reporter was a journal of liberal views started by Rutherford Brown in 1829. Lenihan was the editor of the Limerick Reporter until 1843, when he started working for the Cork Examiner.

His stay in Cork lasted only a few months, because by the end of 1843 he had moved to Nenagh and established his own newspaper, the Tipperary Vindicator. The aims of the Tipperary Vindicator included the disestablishment of the State Church and the repeal of the Act of Union by constitutional means. It was also in Nenagh where he married Elizabeth Spain in November 1843. Lenihan amalgamated the Tipperary Vindicator with the Limerick Reporter, which he purchased in 1849.

In 1853, he decided to enter public life as a member of Limerick Municipal Council, and from 1854 to 1887 (with the exception of two years in the sixties) he represented the Custom House Ward division. In 1870 he was made Justice of the Peace and in December 1883 was unanimously elected as Mayor of the city.

However Lenihan is probably best known as a historian. His most famous work is The History of Limerick, which was published in 1864. The book treats of the history of Limerick from the earliest times to the 1860's. Lenihan had been encouraged to write this history of Limerick by friends such as Patrick Leahy, Archbishop of Cashel, and the Gaelic scholar, Eugene O'Curry. The book was academically a success. Lenihan's merits as a historian were recognised by the Royal Irish Academy, when he was elected to membership in 1869. However the book was not a financial success, and contributed to Lenihan's financial difficulties at the end of his life. Indeed, before his death, he was forced to sell many of the manuscripts he had gathered when writing The History of Limerick and when planning to write histories of Clare and Tipperary. Many of his manuscripts were purchased by the British Museum.

He died in 1895 and was survived by his wife and four of his nine sons and daughters.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions: N.A.

Use Restrictions: N.A.

Related Materials: Finegan, Francis: ‘Maurice Lenihan, historian of Limerick', in The Old Limerick Journal, Nos. 17 - 20, 1984 - 1986