Madam, - Joe Carroll's recent article on President Kennedy's visit to Ireland 40 years ago reminded me of my own brief encounter with the president. When I arrived at Áras an Uachtaráin for a garden party given in the President's honour, Marie O'Kelly, Dev's secretary, said no journalists were allowed in. I found the US Ambassador McCloskey, whom I had interviewed in New York before he came to Ireland, and asked him to bring me in.
When he introduced me to JFK, the president asked what paper I belonged to. I said it was the Irish Press and told him that I was at his press conference in Washington the previous year and had got to my feet twice to ask a question but that he hadn't seen me.
He replied, "Yes, but I felt you were there"! - Yours, etc.,
SHEILA WALSH, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.