Lenihan, Maurice, 1811-1895

Maurice Lenihan was born on February 5, 1811 in Waterford, Ireland. He received his early education at a school attached to St. John’s Seminary, before moving to Carlow College in 1823, where he boarded for eight years. In 1831, he began working at the Tipperary Press, before moving to the Waterford Chronicle in 1833. By 1841, he was editor of the Limerick Reporter. He settled in Nenagh, North Tipperary (now County Tipperary), established his own newspaper, the Tipperary Vindicator, and married a local woman, Elizabeth Spain. The Tipperary Vindicator covered local and national news, providing commentary on politics and the major intellectual ideas of the age.

Lenihan was a moderate constitutional nationalist, serving on the Limerick municipal council from 1863 to 1887. In the 1880s, Lenihan was a supporter of land reform and an independent Irish parliament. In 1884, he became mayor of Limerick. He had previously published a history of Limerick, Limerick, its History and Antiquities, in 1866. Lenihan’s book, however, was published at a loss, and the following decades saw a significant decline in his family’s finances. Towards the end of his life, his newspaper became unprofitable, and he was forced to sell his books and manuscripts to the British Museum. Lenihan died on December 25, 1895 in Limerick.