Kennedy, John F., Visit of

In June 1963, as part of a wider European tour and just after his famous address at the Berlin Wall, John F. Kennedy made a memorable visit to Ireland, the first of any U.S. president during his term of office. Kennedy, also the first Irish-American Catholic elected to the Oval Office, received a tumultuous welcome during stops in Galway, Co. Limerick, Cork, and Dublin as well as in Wexford, the home of his Irish forebears. The Irish people embraced Kennedy, the great-grandson of Irish emigrants, as one of their own, and saw the success of the Harvard-educated, fourth-generation Bostonian as a vindication of their own Irish identity and proof, as one Irish newspaper noted, that they too were made of the "right stuff." Dermot Keogh recalls Kennedy's sojourn across Ireland as "days of national celebration." Alvin Jackson accurately describes the trip as "an emotionally intense occasion for both guest and hosts," and Kennedy himself, in a letter to the president of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, poignantly remembered it as "one of the moving experiences of my life."

In Ireland, President Kennedy's visit provided a boost to the opening up of Irish society, a process that had been underway since the 1950s and was then being spearheaded by the taoiseach (prime minister), Seán Lemass, who was especially committed to international trade and economic development. Speaking before the Dáil, Kennedy congratulated the Irish people, saying "[you have] modernized your economy, harnessed your rivers, diversified your industry, liberalized your trade, electrified your farms, accelerated your rate of growth, and improved the living standards of your people."

Kennedy received numerous accolades during his stay. After being awarded honorary degrees from Trinity College, Dublin, (primarily Protestant at the time) and the National University of Ireland (traditionally Catholic), he quipped, "I now feel equally part of both, and if they ever have a game of Gaelic football or hurling, I shall cheer for Trinity and pray for National." Just before returning to the United States, Kennedy promised his audience in Limerick that "I certainly will come back in the springtime"—a rendezvous that never materialized.

SEE ALSO Diaspora: The Irish in North America; Politics: Independent Ireland since 1922

Bibliography

Jackson, Alvin. Ireland, 1798–1998. 1999.

Keogh, Dermot. Twentieth-Century Ireland. 1994.

McCaffrey, Lawrence. The Irish Diaspora in America. 1984.

Mitchell, Arthur. JFK and His Irish Heritage. 1993.

O'Donnell, Kenneth, and David Powers. "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye." 1970.

Joseph M. Skelly