Julian Lennon stepsister, Kyoko Chan Cox. Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" to console him over the divorce; originally called "Hey Jules", McCartney changed the name because he thought that "Jude" was an easier name to sing. After his parents' divorce, Julian had almost no contact with his father until the early 1970s when, at the request of his father's then short-term girlfriend, May Pang (Yoko Ono and Lennon had temporarily separated), he began to visit his father regularly. John Lennon bought him a Gibson Les Paul guitar and a drum machine for Christmas 1973, and encouraged his interest in music by showing
George Lennon earlier novel were transparently based upon his life." In 2009 it emerged that a Republican Sinn Féin Cumann had named the Waterford branch of its organisation after George Lennon without the permission of his family . In 2010 the Lennon name was deleted and replaced by that of Thomas McElwee, a blanket protester and hunger striker who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a non-jury diplock court for the death of Yvonne Dunlop in a bomb attack. This, in turn, brought to light other issues, including the refusal by a West Waterford Republican organisation, originally established by Lennon in 1930's