Denis O'Donnell

He was born in Tubrid, Ardfert, County Kerry, to Patrick O'Donnell of Tubridmore, and Bridget (née Griffin) of Lerrig.

He was influenced by the cooperative movement being driven by Sir Horace Plunkett, as described in the account of country life of the times by Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, Seventy Years Young.

Accordingly, Denis O'Donnell organised farmers in the early cooperative movement in County Kerry, and founded the Lee Strand Co-operative Creamery on 30 April 1920 in Church Street, Tralee, still a going concern marking its centenary in 2020 although it relocated to Ballymullen in 1992 to the site of the former barracks of the Royal Munster Fusiliers.

[4] O'Donnell engaged in extensive correspondence in the 1920s about the management of creameries, including the ability of some to keep butter supplies in cold storage pending better market prices.

When the prospect came in 1925 of a visit to Tralee by the controversial Cork-born Archbishop Daniel Mannix of Melbourne, who had opposed the Easter Rising of 1916, but also opposed conscription, Denis O’Donnell wrote initially on 10 October to query his intentions, as Mannix's preceding visits to other parts of Ireland were "preaching politics everywhere, naming some Irishmen Imperialists, and blowing his own trumpet as to his steadfastness in our cause".

By pointing out the inconsistencies if not contradictions in Dr. Mannix's public postures, O’Donnell was taking on a "sacred cow" – he was ahead of his time in not submitting blindly to the dominance of clergy acting as political agents provocateurs, and in emphasizing the onus on that particular cleric to speak instead towards national unity rather than foster radicalism in the name of Irish republicanism.

[9] In that nuanced regard, Denis O’Donnell welcomed Mannix's planned encounters in Ireland as "a real peace demonstration" if people "of all shades of opinion" took part in it.

[10] This should have placated another anonymous begrudging correspondent self-described as "a lane dweller", who writing two days beforehand libelled O’Donnell as "the Dictator of Basin View" where he lived, for simply querying the expectations of the Kerry County Council in inviting Dr. Mannix.

It is clear that Denis O’Donnell had a more nuanced understanding of the background of Dr. Mannix, who in earlier times had demonstrated loyalty to Kings Edward VII in 1905 and George V in 1911, and not been that supportive of Home rule, but who years later became more ardently nationalist especially after he had been intercepted and arrested by British troops who boarded his vessel in 1920 while sailing from New York destined for Ireland, but then transferred to England to prevent his influence in Ireland.