{"id":255614,"date":"2025-12-28T12:44:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T12:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/255614\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T12:44:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T12:44:16","slug":"jon-kennys-wife-reflects-on-how-legendary-comedian-always-saw-the-bigger-picture-during-illness-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/255614\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Kenny’s wife reflects on how legendary comedian always saw the bigger picture during illness battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

“He always said afterwards it was the best thing that ever happened”\"JonJon Kenny with his wife Margy and their two children<\/p>\n

The wife of Jon Kenny<\/a> said he looked at the bigger picture when he got ill – and saw it as a gift of time with his children<\/p>\n

He was the comedian who touched the funny bone of the nation with his on-the-nose depiction of rural Ireland.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The genius lay in razor-sharp observation and exaggeration of the comical quirks of rural characters – an observational brilliance likely sharpened at his family\u2019s drapery shop during his childhood.<\/p>\n

John Creedon said: \u201cThe reason why people went with those ridiculous sketches and sometimes ridiculous costumes is because the characters were credible. We knew them.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the height of that fame came a devastating diagnosis of Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma but he would later reflect that the illness gave him the gift of precious time with his growing children.<\/p>\n

\"D'UnbelievablesD’Unbelievables star Jon Kenny(Image: Collins)<\/p>\n

The hilarious, high-energy shows honed in bars in front of student crowds had moved to record-breaking runs in sold-out stadiums.<\/p>\n

By the late 90s, the D\u2019Unbelievables had videos at the top of the charts and a frenetic touring schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was huge\u201d, said wife Margy, \u201cThey probably worked too much, Jon always said he worked too much when the kids were young.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut like all entertainers you\u2019ve spent a long time knocking on that door and you don\u2019t know when the door is going to close again so you\u2019re inclined to take everything.,\u201d<\/p>\n

But in RTE\u2019s Cloch le Carn, Kenny\u2019s wife, Margy, reflected that the diagnosis in 2000 in the middle of a tour changed his outlook on life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had about a two-year gap when he was on treatment for Hodgkin\u2019s Lymphoma. But he always said afterwards it was the best thing that ever happened.<\/p>\n

\"PatPat Shortt and Jon Kenny<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018I got to spend time with my kids and got to know them.\u2019 It forced him off that merry-go-round and introduced him to a different life, a different way of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

His comedy partner Pat Shortt<\/a> remembers the diagnosis coming out of the blue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in the middle of a tour,\u201d he says. \u201cJon was heading off to do some charity work in India and needed tests before he went. Suddenly he found out he wasn\u2019t well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember he rang me from Limerick<\/a> hospital and said, \u2018Listen, come in for a minute.\u2019 He told me everything was going to have to be cancelled so he could get treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a terrible blow for a couple of reasons, I was out of work and my best friend was very, very sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends recall how Kenny faced treatment with his trademark optimism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was never a trace of self-pity,\u201d says longtime friend Creedon. \u201cI\u2019m sure there were moments when he thought, \u2018Why me?\u2019 But he wouldn\u2019t entertain negativity at all around illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irish comedian, Jon Kenny’s funeral in St. Patrick’s Church, Lough Gur, Bruff. (Image: Brendan Gleeson )<\/p>\n

Margy said her husband took the attitude that he was going to \u201ctake the medicine and get on with it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was going to get better, and that was it,\u201d Margy says. \u201cAnd he did get back. He started a solo career again, which worked very well, and he was involved in films and television.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Kenny family were hit by tragedy when Jon\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

On Sundays, she would play her much-loved LPs on the record player, instilling a lifelong love of music in her son.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"LegendaryThe D\u2019Unbelievables star died in November 2024 at the age of 66 after suffering from a heart attack(Image: Collins)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he left school after the Inter Cert at the time, he actually never worked at a normal job after that\u201d, said his wife Margy, \u201cI met him when we were 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe became very good friends in the beginning. And it kind of grew kind of very naturally then.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a real love.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was naturally had a great sense of humour and of course he could jump in and out of characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cloch le Carn \u2013 Jon Kenny will be broadcast on RTE One on Wednesday at 8pm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: <\/strong>Sign up here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“He always said afterwards it was the best thing that ever happened”Jon Kenny with his wife Margy and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,17,84835,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-255614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-pat-shortt","14":"tag-rte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}