“If the day was clear enough, and if you went down to the bay and you looked west, and your sight was good enough, you would see Boston, Massachusetts,” President Kennedy said at the time. “And if you did, you would see down working on the docks there some Dougherty’s and Flaherty’s and Ryan’s and cousins of yours who have gone to Boston and made good.”
Photographs of President Kennedy and his sisters, Jean Kennedy Smith and Eunice Shriver, document their June 27, 1963 visit to the Kennedy family’s Irish homestead in Dunganstown, County Wexford for a family reunion. On display is the Irish blackthorn walking stick presented to President Kennedy by his cousin Jimmy Kennedy during that visit.
Among the other gifts on display is a Waterford Crystal Pedestal Vase depicting an Irish homestead, an immigrant ship, and the White House, thus recapitulating the family history and heritage of John F. Kennedy and his family heritage. The vase was presented to President Kennedy by the New Ross Harbor Commissioners during his visit to New Ross on June 27, 1963.
Other Irish treasures on display include a Carrickmacross lace napkin, one of a set of 36, presented by Irish Prime Minister Sean LeMass.
Among the distinguished Irish foreign visitors who have visited the Kennedy Library and have been hosted by members of the Kennedy family are Prime Minister Bertie Ahern; President Mary McAleese; Prime Minister Garrett Fitzgerald; President Mary Robinson; Prime Minister Charles Haughey; and Prime Minister Albert Reynolds.
In December, 1998, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the members of its Profile in Courage Award Committee presented a special John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to eight political leaders of Northern Ireland and former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, the American chairman of the peace talks, in recognition of the extraordinary political courage they demonstrated in negotiating the historic Good Friday Peace Agreement. The award presentation was made by Caroline Kennedy, president of the Kennedy Library Foundation, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith at a formal ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston. The presentation of the Profile in Courage Award to a non-American was unprecedented.
Nobel Peace Prize winners John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party and David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party; as well as Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein; John Alderdice, Alliance Party of Northern Ireland; David Ervine, Progressive Unionist Party; Monica McWilliams, Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition; Gary McMichael, Ulster Democratic Party; Malachi Curran, Northern Ireland Labour Party; and Senator Mitchell, were presented with the prestigious award for political courage.