JFK in Ireland: Four Days that Changed a President. Ryan Tubridy

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      JFK

       In Ireland

      FOUR DAYS THAT CHANGED A PRESIDENT

      RYAN TUBRIDY

       For Ella and Julia My little dotes

      A letter from Jacqueline Kennedy to President de Valera, thanking him for attending her husband’s funeral.

      The Irish tricolour comes alive for JFK as children from local schools dressed in orange, white and green rainwear rush to greet him in Galway.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       CHAPTER FOUR Planning the Visit

       CHAPTER FIVE The European Tour Begins

       CHAPTER SIX Arriving in Dublin

       CHAPTER SEVEN New Ross

       CHAPTER EIGHT Dunganstown

       CHAPTER NINE Wexford Harbour

       CHAPTER TEN The Garden Party

       CHAPTER ELEVEN Iveagh House

       CHAPTER TWELVE Cork

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN Arbour Hill

       CHAPTER FOURTEEN Leinster House

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN Dublin Castle

       CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Last Supper

       CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Galway

       CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Limerick

       CHAPTER NINETEEN Shannon Airport

       CHAPTER TWENTY The Road to Dallas

       CHAPTER TWENTY–ONE JFK in Ireland: The Legacy

       NOTES

       INDEX

       ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       PICTURE CREDITS

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

      Badge of honour: three small children cheer JFK during his Irish visit.

       PROLOGUE

      Kenny O’Donnell, the President’s right–hand man was flabbergasted. “Ireland?” he said. “Mr. President, may I say something? There’s no reason for you to go to Ireland. It would be a waste of time. You’ve got all the Irish votes in this country that you’ll ever get. If you go to Ireland, people will say it’s just a pleasure trip.”

      Nobody thought it was a good idea. Not the American media, not the presidential advisers, nobody. But President Kennedy had made up his mind and when O’Donnell went back to the President the following day to relay this message, Kennedy looked up at him from his newspaper “with an air of exasperated impatience”. “Kenny, let me remind you of something,” he said with a distinct air of finality and authority. “I am the President of the United States, not you. When I say I want to go to Ireland, it means that I’m going to Ireland. Make the arrangements.”1

      It was meant to be a band–aid trip to key European allies, an attempt to show them that America cared as the Soviet beast breathed down their necks. Italy demanded a visit, Germany needed attention, England desired a distraction and France sulked. But there were bigger problems at play; Italy was between governments and there was an ailing Pope in the Vatican. In Germany, Chancellor Adenauer’s government was in disarray after the Der Spiegel affair. In England, Harold Macmillan was suffering through the extraordinary Profumo Affair, which saw his War Minister caught lying about his affair with a call–girl who happened to be sharing a bed with Russian naval attaché Eugene Ivanov. The thought of America’s glamorous young president popping over for tea was political manna for the electorally beleagured

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