McKenna, Andrew Joseph (1833–72), newspaper editor, was born 1 November 1833 in Co. Cavan, third son of Joseph McKenna (occupation unknown) and Esther McKenna (née Young). He was educated at Kilmore Academy, Co. Cavan, and St Patrick's College, Maynooth, where he matriculated on 28 August 1853. Deciding against ordination, he was for a time a teacher at Summerhill College, near Athlone, Co. Westmeath, where he acquired a reputation for brilliance in speech and writing. In 1860 he moved to Dublin and joined the staff of the Morning News, founded by A. M. Sullivan (qv). His ability was such that in July 1862 he was asked to go to Belfast to take on the editorship of the Ulster Observer, newly founded by the Ulster Catholic Publishing Co. Under McKenna's direction, it was a triweekly liberal catholic paper, advocating free trade, reform, and civil and religious liberty. McKenna used his commanding presence, vigorous pen, and effective public speaking manner to become a well known figure in Belfast. A devout catholic, he also practised religious tolerance; a close friend was the Rev. Henry Henderson, who as ‘John J. Marshall’ was a popular Orange novelist. McKenna's outlook was more liberal than that of the paper's shareholders, and within two years friction had developed between them. In January 1868 he quarrelled with Patrick Dorrian (qv), bishop of Down and Connor, and was removed from his post; the paper immediately folded. In less than a month he had launched, from premises at 36 Arthur St., a new paper called the Northern Star. This triweekly was similar to his previous one but rather more radical. Bishop Dorrian did his best to crush it by spending thousands of pounds launching, on 14 March 1868, a rival paper called the Ulster Examiner. Nicknamed the ‘Vatican juggler and Star of Purgatory’, it was advertised as the only authorised exponent of catholic principles in Ulster. But it did not succeed in putting the Northern Star out of business, and in 1869 had to pay McKenna £250 in libel damages.

In May 1871 McKenna was devastated by the misfortune of the death of his only child, to whom he was devotedly attached. A moving poem to her was published anonymously in the Northern Star that Christmas, and friends believed his grief contributed to his own early death at the age of 38 at his fatherinlaw's residence in Holywood, Co. Down, on 4 April 1872. He was called to the Irish bar in 1865 and was apparently planning a legal career. He was survived by his wife, Catherine Louisa, daughter of Edward McHugh, a Belfast linen merchant, and was buried at Friar's Bush cemetery, Belfast. Thousands attended his funeral, including Bishop Dorrian, and a large Gothic monument was erected by public subscription on his grave. He left effects worth just under £2,000. The Northern Star only survived him by seven months; its last issue was 30 November 1872. One month later the Ulster Examiner tacked Northern Star to its title.

Sources

Northern Star, 6 Apr. 1872; Irish Monthly, xx (1892), 549–53; A. A. Campbell, Belfast papers, past and present (1921); IBL, xiv (1924), 102; Patrick J. Hamell, Maynooth: students and ordination index, 1795–1895 (1982); King's Inns admissions; R. S. J. Clarke, Gravestone inscriptions Belfast, ii (1984); The Waterloo directory of Irish newspapers and periodicals, 1800–1900 (1986); Marie-Louise Legge, Newspapers and nationalism: the Irish provincial press, 1850–1892 (1999)