1254 William Kenny

Constituency : Dublin St  Stephen's  Green  1892-8  ( Liberal  Unionist )

William  removed  Ireland's  lone  Liberal  MP Thomas  Dickson  who  had  taken  the  seat  from  the  Nationalists  at  a  by-election  in  1888.

William  was  a  solicitor's  son  from  Dublin. He  was  educated  at  Trinity  College, Dublin. He  became  a  barrister.  Despite  his  Catholicism  he  was  a  staunch  Unionist  which  tended  to  make  both  sides  suspicious  of  him. After  the  Home  Rule  Bill  of  1886  he  set  up  the  Liberal  Union  of  Ireland  and  arranged  the  visit  of  Hartington  and  Goschen  in  1887.

William  supported  land  reform  and  peasant  ownership  but  disliked  Chamberlain's  county  council  scheme  for  Ireland  describing  it  as  "an  awful  scheme  of  provincial  councils".

In  1895  William  was  made  Solicitor-General  for  Ireland   in  Salisbury's  government.  He  also  sat  on  the  Tourist  Committee  for  Ireland.

William  resigned  his  seat  to  become  a  High  Court  judge  in  1898.

He  died  in  1921 aged  75.