Kitty Kiernan

Catherine Brigid "Kitty" Kiernan (1892 – 24 July 1945) was an Irish woman widely known as the fiancée of assassinated Irish revolutionary leader and Chairman of the Provisional Government, Michael Collins.

Kitty Kiernan was born in Granard, County Longford and educated in Loreto Convent, County Wicklow. Hers was a very comfortably-off merchant family with five sisters and one brother. Her parents, Bridget and Peter Kiernan, enjoyed a happy marriage, and life in the Kiernan home was joyous until Kitty reached her teens. In 1907 one of her twin sisters died in her late teens, followed in 1908 by the deaths of both her parents within a couple of months of each other. The family was to be further devastated by the death in 1909 of the remaining twin sister. The Kiernan family owned the Greville Arms Hotel in the town, as well as a grocery shop, a hardware store, a timber and undertaking business and also a bar. Around the corner from the hotel they operated a bakery which supplied the town and most of the surrounding countryside. All the family worked in one capacity or another.

Michael Collins, one of the principal founders of the independent Irish state, was introduced to the vivacious Kiernan sisters by his cousin Gearóid O'Sullivan, who was already dating Maud Kiernan. Collins initially fell for the captivating Helen Kiernan, but she was already engaged to someone else. He then turned his interests to Kitty, who had already captured the interest of Collins' friend Harry Boland. However, it was Collins to whom Kitty became engaged, with plans to marry Collins in a November 1922 double ceremony to include the nuptials of Maud and Gearóid. Collins' death four months earlier resulted in a single wedding taking place.

In 1925, Kitty married Felix Cronin, who was Quartermaster General in the Irish Army. They had two sons, the second of whom they called Michael Collins Cronin. The first child was named Felix Cronin; he and his son Rex (Felix) are buried next to Kitty and Felix.

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