“He always said afterwards it was the best thing that ever happened”
Jon Kenny with his wife Margy and their two children
The wife of Jon Kenny said he looked at the bigger picture when he got ill – and saw it as a gift of time with his children
He was the comedian who touched the funny bone of the nation with his on-the-nose depiction of rural Ireland.
For decades, he had the nation rolling in the aisles at the instantly recognisable portrayals of ordinary characters from the cracked hurling manager to the swaggering primary school teacher.
The genius lay in razor-sharp observation and exaggeration of the comical quirks of rural characters – an observational brilliance likely sharpened at his family’s drapery shop during his childhood.
John Creedon said: “The reason why people went with those ridiculous sketches and sometimes ridiculous costumes is because the characters were credible. We knew them.”
At the height of that fame came a devastating diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma but he would later reflect that the illness gave him the gift of precious time with his growing children.
D’Unbelievables star Jon Kenny(Image: Collins)
The hilarious, high-energy shows honed in bars in front of student crowds had moved to record-breaking runs in sold-out stadiums.
By the late 90s, the D’Unbelievables had videos at the top of the charts and a frenetic touring schedule.
“It was huge”, said wife Margy, “They probably worked too much, Jon always said he worked too much when the kids were young.
“But like all entertainers you’ve spent a long time knocking on that door and you don’t know when the door is going to close again so you’re inclined to take everything.,”
But in RTE’s Cloch le Carn, Kenny’s wife, Margy, reflected that the diagnosis in 2000 in the middle of a tour changed his outlook on life.
“He had about a two-year gap when he was on treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. But he always said afterwards it was the best thing that ever happened.
Pat Shortt and Jon Kenny
“He said, ‘I got to spend time with my kids and got to know them.’ It forced him off that merry-go-round and introduced him to a different life, a different way of living.”
His comedy partner Pat Shortt remembers the diagnosis coming out of the blue.
“It was in the middle of a tour,” he says. “Jon was heading off to do some charity work in India and needed tests before he went. Suddenly he found out he wasn’t well.
“I remember he rang me from Limerick hospital and said, ‘Listen, come in for a minute.’ He told me everything was going to have to be cancelled so he could get treatment.
“It was a terrible blow for a couple of reasons, I was out of work and my best friend was very, very sick.”
Friends recall how Kenny faced treatment with his trademark optimism.
“There was never a trace of self-pity,” says longtime friend Creedon. “I’m sure there were moments when he thought, ‘Why me?’ But he wouldn’t entertain negativity at all around illness.”
Irish comedian, Jon Kenny’s funeral in St. Patrick’s Church, Lough Gur, Bruff. (Image: Brendan Gleeson )
Margy said her husband took the attitude that he was going to “take the medicine and get on with it”.
“He was going to get better, and that was it,” Margy says. “And he did get back. He started a solo career again, which worked very well, and he was involved in films and television.”
Cloch le Carn traces his life from his birth in Limerick in 1957 to an entertainer who would take to the stage as a musician, comedian, an acclaimed drama actor and even dabbled in ballet.
The Kenny family were hit by tragedy when Jon’s father, John senior, an extrovert like his famous son, died at the age of 42, leaving his mother, Mary, to raise five children along with running the store six days a week.
On Sundays, she would play her much-loved LPs on the record player, instilling a lifelong love of music in her son.
Jon, who struggled in the classroom due to his dyslexia, left school at 15 and joined a glam rock band called Gimik, who would go on to support the Bay City Rollers and Mud on their Irish tours.
The D’Unbelievables star died in November 2024 at the age of 66 after suffering from a heart attack(Image: Collins)
“When he left school after the Inter Cert at the time, he actually never worked at a normal job after that”, said his wife Margy, “I met him when we were 25.
“We became very good friends in the beginning. And it kind of grew kind of very naturally then.
“We had a real love.”
After leaving Gimik he went solo, and his wife toured the country with him in a tiny Fiat with two giant speakers crammed into the backseat.
“He was naturally had a great sense of humour and of course he could jump in and out of characters.”
Cloch le Carn – Jon Kenny will be broadcast on RTE One on Wednesday at 8pm.
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