Educator and historian Kevin Lee, who fostered Canadian Irish connection, has died

Kevin Lee was a beloved principal, lecturer, and community historian who died on February 22, 2026, surrounded by family, leaving behind a legacy of reconnecting Canadian diaspora families with their County Wicklow origins. He spent a working life in education and local history, and his research into the Coollattin Estate assisted emigration programme helped hundreds of Canadian families find the exact townlands their ancestors left.

Kevin Lee was a native of Rathdrum, on the former Fitzwilliam-owned Coollattin Estate, and an honors graduate in History and Geography from University College Dublin. He spent his career as principal of Coláiste Bhríde and founded the Carnew Historical Society, through which he lectured widely on 19th-century Irish social and economic history.

His careful archival work on the Fitzwilliam assisted emigration schemes became a lifeline for Canadians searching for precise origins. The book "Shoeboxes: From Irish Roots to Canadian Branches", which he co-authored with  Tom Jenkins, collected 50 family histories drawn from those records and from conversations with descendants. The book sparked renewed interest in the Coollattin diaspora.

Ahead of their 2023 tour to promote the book, Lee, his wife Eleanor, and his co-author spoke to the Napanee Leader. Lee said, “We are blessed here in County Wicklow, the people that went to Canada had their fare paid by an English landlord, a guy called Earl Fitzwilliam."

Eleanor added, “With Kevin’s maps, we can pinpoint the exact site of their homestead. It’s very spiritual.”

Those maps and records were not only academic tools but practical guides for visitors. Over the last three decades, many Canadians have traveled to South Wicklow to stand on the land their ancestors left and to see the townlands recorded in Fitzwilliam’s lists. The Shoeboxes project encouraged further research on surnames and family lines, and its organizers estimated that hundreds of thousands of Canadians could trace their roots back to Wicklow.

Local tributes poured in after Lee’s death. Colleagues and community members remembered him as a patient teacher and a careful scholar whose work reached far beyond the classroom. One called him a “gentleman, teacher and scholar”.

For funeral details and to read the family notice, see the death notice on RIP.ie.