Name Valentine 1st | ||
Valentine Browne, 1st Viscount Kenmare (1638–1694), was an Irish peer. He was the son of Sir Valentine Brown and his wife, Mary MacCarty. He was created Viscount Kenmare in the Peerage of Ireland on 20 May 1689, by King James II, after his deposition by the English Parliament, but while he still possessed his rights as King of Ireland. At the time James was presiding over the short-lived Patriot Parliament. The peerage remained on the Irish patent roll in a constitutionally ambiguous position, but was not formally recognised by the Protestant political establishment. By his wife Jane Plunkett, daughter of Nicholas Plunkett and his wife Catherine Turner. He was the father of Nicholas, 2nd Viscount; his son's estates were forfeit but were recovered by his grandson.
A poem by Aogán Ó Rathaille mocked this vulgar person, compared to the Gaelic aristocrats whose place he attempted to supplant. In translation by Frank O'Connor it says: