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On Wednesday 15th March last, our highly esteemed and much-loved President, Mary E. McKenna of Kilrudden House, Augher, Co. Tyrone, passed to her Eternal Reward, following a lengthy illness, courageously borne.
Mary McKenna was born in Dernawilt East, Roslea, on 28th Sept. 1920, the eldest daughter of Owen Prunty and Margaret Connolly. Her family moved to Coonian, Co. Fermanagh in 1927 and, following her early education, she spent a short spell abroad before returning to the Clogher Valley in 1938. She married Terence McKenna in 1942, reared five children, and was widowed in 1969.
A dedicated mother and go-ahead parishioner, she was also an expert cook and a superb gardener, and both of these pastimes were to be among her remarkable talents throughout her lifetime. Anyone who visited her home or who had the pleasure of entering her garden would be appreciative judges of both of these achievements. Her interests spread much further afield , however, and she was part and parcel of every progressive organisation in existence in the Augher area, and initiated many of her own, where she would always be the guiding light for those involved, who will bear testimony to her dynamic lead and constant words of encouragement and new ideas. She was one of the founders of the ‘Carleton Society’ and was the instigator of the superbly successful ‘Spollen Fair’ in Clogher, where her name became a household word.
Her interest in ‘Clann MacKenna’ was legendary, and the first ever meeting of the Society was held in her home, Kilrudden House, on 12th March 1980, when she was elected ‘Convenor’ and, as usual, provided all present with a traditional tea. The first formal meeting was held on 25th April 1990 with Mary being elected Vice-Chairperson. It was at that meeting too that the proposal to produce a ‘Clann MacKenna’ Journal was taken, and monthly meetings were then held in the ‘Four Seasons Hotel’, Monaghan.
At the second AGM in April 1991, Mary McKenna was elected President of ‘Clann McKenna’ and held that post with dignity and distinction until her death in March of 2006. She will be sorely missed by each and every member of the Society, where she had given such sterling service and where she was the ‘heart and soul’ of every activity in which the clan was involved.
Ar dheis De go raibh a h-anam uasal.
