The Granahan Hunt
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:17 am
It's wonderful to have this poem, so full of genealogical gems, available online. But the author of the preface and notes needs identifying - who was this Thomas Rice Henn, and why was he qualified to annotate Woulfe's poem. In answer to my own question, may I submit the following:
Thomas Rice Henn (TRH), the author of a preface and notes to Nicholas Woulfe's poem The Granahan Hunt, was the owner of the Paradise estate in Killadysert, co Clare, in the second half of the nineteenth century. A barrister and Queen's Counsel, he was born in 1814 and died in 1901. His notes on the Granahan Hunt identify one of the people in the poem as Mary Henn, punningly called the Bird of Paradise for her beauty and abode. She was a collateral ancestor of TRH and married Donagh O'Brien of Dromoland, co Clare. TRH was born early enough to have known people mentioned in the poem and so to have been able to identify the people correctly, since few are explicitly named in the poem. There is no date to the poem, but presumably it was written between 1780 and 1800. It was published in 1896.
The Henn article in LG, which was presumably contributed by TRH himself, names Mary (the Bird of Paradise) Henn, and has quite a lot to say about the Paradise estate that is not in other Burke editions.
Sources:
1. IFR. Burke's Irish Family Records (1976) pages 572-3
2. LG. Burke's Landed Gentry (1862) pages 683-4.
Michael Synge
Thomas Rice Henn (TRH), the author of a preface and notes to Nicholas Woulfe's poem The Granahan Hunt, was the owner of the Paradise estate in Killadysert, co Clare, in the second half of the nineteenth century. A barrister and Queen's Counsel, he was born in 1814 and died in 1901. His notes on the Granahan Hunt identify one of the people in the poem as Mary Henn, punningly called the Bird of Paradise for her beauty and abode. She was a collateral ancestor of TRH and married Donagh O'Brien of Dromoland, co Clare. TRH was born early enough to have known people mentioned in the poem and so to have been able to identify the people correctly, since few are explicitly named in the poem. There is no date to the poem, but presumably it was written between 1780 and 1800. It was published in 1896.
The Henn article in LG, which was presumably contributed by TRH himself, names Mary (the Bird of Paradise) Henn, and has quite a lot to say about the Paradise estate that is not in other Burke editions.
Sources:
1. IFR. Burke's Irish Family Records (1976) pages 572-3
2. LG. Burke's Landed Gentry (1862) pages 683-4.
Michael Synge