Kennedy (Ireland)

Kingdom of Thomond
1118–1543
Thomond before the Norman invasion of Ireland
Capital		Ennis
Languages		Irish
Government		Monarchy
King
•	1118–1142	Conchobar O'Brien
•	1539–1543	Murrough O'Brien
History
•	Established	1118
•	Disestablished	1543

The O'Kennedy family (Irish: Ó Cinnéide), sometimes simply Kennedy, were an Irish royal dynasty, a sept of the Dál gCais, founded in the Middle Ages who were Kings of Ormond. Their founder was the nephew of High King Brian Boru (1002–1014).

The name Cinnéide belonged to Brian Boru's father Cennétig mac Lorcáin, King of Thomond, in the tenth century AD. (Brian Boru was an Ard Rí or High King of Ireland). The Kennedys did not descend directly from Brian Boru, but from Cinnéide's eldest son Donncuan. Donncuan's son Mahon was the first to call himself Ó Cinnéide which is Irish for grandson of Cinnéide.

Placenames such as Killokennedy in Thomond are indicative of their longstanding presence in the region.

The Kennedys belonged to the powerful Dál gCais people of Thomond, headed by the O'Briens. They resided in far eastern Clare, northern Limerick, Mayo, and northern Tipperary in an area called Ormond. Originally seated in Glemor, near Killaloe in Co. Clare, they migrated across the river Shannon to Ormond in Co. Tipperary following pressure from other septs in the region (mainly the O'Briens and the McNamaras).They soon grew in power to become lords in Ormond from the 11th – 16th centuries. The Annals of the Four Masters described them in 1300 to be "the undisputed Lords of Ormond".