For Immediate Release: April 28, 2006
Further information: Brent R. Carney (617) 514-1662, Brent.Carney@JFKLFoundation.org
Boston, MA - On Friday, April 28, Síle de Valera, granddaughter of Eamon DeValera, former President of Ireland, and Ireland’s Minister at the Department of Education, visited the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for a special tour of the new exhibit, A Journey Home – John F. Kennedy and Ireland.
President Eamon de Valera issued the formal invitation to President John F. Kennedy to visit Ireland in June 1963 and was the first to officially welcome him when President Kennedy’s Air Force One landed in Dublin on June 26, 1963.
Síle de Valera serves as Ireland’s Minister at the Department of Education. Minister de Valera previously served as Ireland’s Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. Síle de Valera served as a member of the European Parliament from 1979 – 1984 and served in the Parliament’s Committees on Social Affairs and Employment, Youth Education and Sport, and the Ad Hoc Women’s Committee.
The special new exhibit at the Kennedy Presidential Library explores President Kennedy’s relationship to his ancestral homeland, featuring a large selection of never-before-seen materials from the Museum Collection including gifts presented to the president by the people of Ireland as well as other artifacts, documents, photographs and film footage relating to his Irish heritage and his June 26-29, 1963 state visit to the country of his ancestors.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the Kennedy Library Foundation seek to promote, through scholarship, educational and community programs, a greater appreciation and understanding of American politics, history, and culture, the process of governing and the importance of public service.
The Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with the exceptions of Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. The Research Room is open 8:30 am – 4:30 pm each weekday, and is closed on weekends and Federal Holidays. The Library is located in the Dorchester section of Boston, off Morrissey Boulevard, next to the campus of the University of Massachusetts/Boston. Parking is free. There is free shuttle-service from the JFK/UMass T Stop on the Red Line. The Museum is fully handicapped accessible. For more information, call (866) JFK-1960.