The father of president John F Kennedy wrote to president Éamon de Valera telling him that his son’s four days in Ireland were among the happiest of his life.
President Kennedy visited Ireland for four memorable days in June 1963, just five months before he was assassinated in Dallas.
Joe Kennedy, who had been the US ambassador to Britain during the second World War, wrote to president de Valera following the opening of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Park on May 29th, 1968 near the family homestead in Dunganstown, Co Wexford.
The opening occurred just a week before Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.
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The telegram from ambassador Kennedy is undated, but would appear to have been sent between the opening of the park and the assassination of a second son.
“From president Kennedy’s early boyhood years in our Irish neighbourhood in Boston to that day in late November when the Irish guards paid final respects at his graveside, there was nothing more meaningful and important to him than his Irish heritage,” ambassador Kennedy wrote.
“One of the happiest and most memorable events in our son’s life was his visit to Ireland in 1963.
“He was visibly moved by the warm welcome which he received from the citizens of Co Wexford, the home of his forefathers.”
JFK’s brother, senator Edward Kennedy, appreciated the fact that the park was opened on the late president’s birthday.
“The park represents the promise of life and beauty. This is the way president Kennedy would have wanted you to remember him,” he wrote to president de Valera.
“Our family shall always remember the wonderful hospitality and friendship which you extended to Jack and so we thank you all for the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Park which looks down on the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown and which will remind people from all over the world of president Kennedy’s love for Ireland.”
Robert F Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian-born Palestinian activist, who shot him dead because of his support for Israel.
Robert F Kennedy’s son Robert F Kennedy jnr is president-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be next US secretary of health.
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