Boston, MA - It need not be St. Patrick’s Day to take pride in one’s Irish ancestry. A stop at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston will remind any visitor of the important role Irish Americans have played in the history of the country.
One of Boston’s most popular destinations for visitors from all nations, the national memorial to President John F. Kennedy -- America’s first Irish Catholic president -- sits on a 10-acre waterfront site on Columbia Point offering panoramic views of Boston’s skyline and Harbor Islands.
Housed in a striking building designed by I.M. Pei, the Museum at the Kennedy Library enables visitors to step back into the recreated world of the early 1960s and experience first hand the life and legacy of President John F. Kennedy. Period settings from the White House and 25 multimedia exhibits create a stirring account of President Kennedy’s thousand days in office. Visitors can witness the first televised presidential debate, glimpse life during the Cold War, feel the tension of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and experience the warmth and affection showered upon President Kennedy during his June 1963 visit to Ireland.
It was during that historic visit that President Kennedy remarked to the people of New Ross, Ireland: “When my great grandfather left here to become a cooper in East Boston, he carried nothing with him except two things: a strong religious faith and a strong desire for liberty. I am glad to say that all of his great grandchildren have valued that inheritance.”
Included in the Library’s vast collection is the Fitzgerald family bible brought from Ireland by the President Kennedy’s forebears on which he took his oath of office as President of the United States on January 20, 1961. The Bible is an 1850 Edition of the Douay English translation containing a handwritten chronicle of the Fitzgerald family from 1857 and including a record of the birth of John Fitzgerald Kennedy on May 29, 1917.
On display in the Museum’s Oval Office is a fragment of a pennant flown on the Raleigh, a ship commanded by John Barry, a founder of the U.S. Navy and former commander of the USS Constitution. Barry, who served during the Revolutionary War as one of the first captains of the Constitutional Navy, was born in County Wexford, Ireland, the ancestral home of President Kennedy. President Kennedy displayed the pennant in the White House Oval Office.
Also in display in the Museum is a miniature replica of the Great Galway Mace mounted on Connemara marble, presented to JFK by the Galway Chamber of Commerce on June 29; the Irish blackthorn walking stick presented to President Kennedy by his cousin Jimmy Kennedy during that visit to Ireland; a Waterford Crystal Pedestal Vase depicting an Irish homestead, an immigrant ship, and the White House, that outlines the history 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. The president’s great-grandfather Patrick Kennedy had departed from New Ross for Boston in 1848; a Carrickmacross lace napkin, one of a set of 36, presented by Irish Prime Minister Sean LeMass; and historic film footage from President Kennedy’s historic journey to his homeland of Ireland in June of 1963.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the offspring of two families whose roots stretched back to Ireland. The Fitzgerald family was from western Ireland in the rural County Limerick village of Bruff. Sometime between 1846 and 1855 some of the Fitzgeralds migrated to America because of the devastating Potato Famine. During that same period of time, Patrick Kennedy, a cooper, left his ancestral home in Dunganstown, County Wexford for the United States. In 1849 he married Bridget Murphy in East Boston. Nine years later she was a widow with four small children, the youngest of whom, Patrick, would become John Kennedy’s grandfather.
The Fitzgeralds and Kennedys lived and worked in Boston, seeking to take advantage of the economic opportunity offered in America. To do that, they had to overcome the harsh, widespread discrimination of Irish Catholic immigrants at that time. The early Kennedys and Fitzgeralds worked as peddlers, coopers and common laborers; later they became clerks, tavern owners and retailers. By the end of the century, Patrick “P.J.” Kennedy and John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, the president’s other grandfather, had become successful Boston politicians.
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 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 former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, the American chairman of the peace talks, were presented with the prestigious award for political courage.
General admission to the Museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is $10.00. Admission for seniors over the age of 62 and college students with appropriate identification is $8.00, and for children ages 13-17, $7.00. Children ages 12 and under are admitted for free.
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 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.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization.