In 1887 her nephews Austin and Richard Rice were evicted from their farm for non-payment of rent and this began a series of events which would bring the Kents to national prominence.
[citation needed] The Rices had initially leased the farm from the Peard family but in July 1888, it was sold to Orr McCausland, a Belfast-based landowner and their homestead was occupied by a steward and a general manager (Robert Browne, reportedly a native of Scotland).
The Kents and their cousins, the Rices, teamed up with Father Jeremiah O’Dwyer, the parish curate, to launch a boycott against Browne.
[1][2] In the autumn of 1889, four Kent brothers - David, Edmond, Richard, and William – were among ten men hauled into a crowded Fermoy Courthouse, charged with orchestrating a boycott campaign.
The second oldest Kent brother, Thomas, did not appear in the dock because he was in the USA (he had emigrated to Boston in 1884 and had spent the intervening years working as a church furniture maker and dabbling publishing; had he been present he could have been tried after being accused of throwing eggs at Browne's car).
[citation needed] From the dock, Edmond shouted, ‘Death or victory is our war-cry, and then the Saxon chains will break’, while another prisoner called Callaghan McCarthy managed to loose off a few bars of ‘God Save Ireland’ on a flute.
At the close of May 1890, Tom (who had returned from Boston) and his brother William were charged, alongside Austin Rice, with intimidating Mary Murphy, an elderly woman who worked for Browne, by making sure she was unable to purchase a pig at the fair.
During their trial, Browne, now under police protection, told how horns were continually blown towards his house from the Kent residence.
When the magistrate sentenced the brothers to one month's imprisonment, with hard labour, William roared ‘Victory is our cry and our motto no surrender’ while Thomas slammed his fist upon the desk and shouted "God save Ireland".
As the prisoners were escorted to the railway station, District Inspector Ball became so unnerved by the cheering crowd that he ordered his men to charge with their batons and several people were injured.
They were amongst seven men accused of attempting to ‘compel and induce’ fourteen members of McCausland's workforce to leave his employment.
William was described as the ringleader of a campaign to intimidate McCausland's staff when they attempted to attend Mass at Coolagown Chapel.
[2] William Kent later left an account of the whole boycott episode, "In 1889 my brothers, Edmond, Richard and David, the local curate, Rev.
Owing to his youth, the younger brother, Richard, was acquitted by the resident magistrates, Colonels Gardiner and Caddell.
[2] Tom became an avid supporter of the Gaelic League and later of Arthur Griffith's Sinn Féin[2] By 1901, Mary Kent (age 60) was living at Bawnard House with five of her bachelor sons and one of her daughters.
Thomas and David led the men through this meeting, and, halting a short distance away from it, addressed the crowd, advising them to join the Volunteers and have nothing whatever to do with the British Army.
In August 1915, Thomas Kent attended the funeral of the Fenian leader Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa in Glasnevin, Dublin, at which Patrick Pearse delivered his celebrated oration.
[2] William Kent stated, "Early in January, 1916, Thomas and Terence MacSwiney were arrested and charged before a bench of magistrates in Cork with making seditious speeches at Ballynoe.
In 1916, during the round-up in the aftermath of the Easter Rising the RIC raided Bawnard House, and Mary Kent and her four sons Thomas, David, William, and Richard resisted arrest.
Our mother, then over eighty years of age, dressed herself, and all during the ensuing fight assisted by loading weapons and with words of encouragement.
Richard, a famous athlete, was not immediately handcuffed and in the confusion he attempted to escape by bounding over a hedge nearby.
"The following week, Thomas Kent (aged 51) was convicted of the murder of Constable Rowe at court-martial in Victoria Barracks, Cork.
[9] William Kent died in 1957, he was 84 years old and was the "last survivor of the band of local Land League fighters".