Ireland Celebrates 50 Years Since JFK’s Visit

The family of John F Kennedy visit New Ross, the town from which the president’s great-grandfather emigrated to the US.

The Irish government and the Kennedy clan have celebrated the 50th anniversary of President John F Kennedy’s visit.

A day-long street party on Saturday was capped by the lighting of Ireland’s own “eternal flame”.

The celebrations focused on the CountyWexford town of New Ross, from where Patrick Kennedy departed in 1848 at the height of Ireland’s potato famine to resettle in Boston.

In June 1963, his great-grandson John returned to the town as the United States’ first and only Irish Catholic president.

During his four-day tour across Ireland, JFK so charmed the nation that, even decades later, his portrait adorns many living-room walls as the ultimate symbol of Irish success in America.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny joined JFK’s only surviving sibling, Jean Kennedy Smith, and his only surviving child, Caroline Kennedy, to hold three torches together that light a flame encased within an iron globe.

The flame had been carried Olympics-style from JFK’s plot in Arlington Cemetery by aircraft to Dublin, then by Irish navy vessel up the River Barrow to the New Ross dockside.

It was the first time the Kennedy eternal flame had been passed along in this fashion.

“May it be a symbol of the fire in the Irish heart, imagination and soul,” An Taoiseach Enda Kenny told more than 10,000 who had gathered along the river bank.

“We have been told over and over that America is no longer the great country that it was when my grandfather was president,” said Caroline’s 20-year-old son Jack.

But he said Ireland’s ability to rise from centuries of poverty, emigration and social strife demonstrated that Kennedy-style ambition and optimism could find a home in the 21st century, too. “The glow from this flame can truly light the world,” he said.