CREW: The JFK35 podcast is made possible through generous support from the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.
MATT PORTER: A note for our listeners-- this episode contains graphic depictions of violence during the Northern Ireland conflict. Listener discretion is advised. In 1963, President Kennedy came home to Ireland, the land of his ancestors. During that visit, he called upon the Irish to take their place among the world's peacemakers.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: And that your destiny lies not as a peaceful island in a sea of troubles, but as a maker and a shaper of world peace.
MATT PORTER: I'm Matt Porter. And in this episode, we will talk about the legacy of President Kennedy's visit to Ireland and how the tiny island nation has lived up to the challenge set forth by the president on Let Us Begin: The Peacemakers.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: All this will not be finished in the first 100 days, nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
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MATT PORTER: The Republic of Ireland officially formed on April 18, 1949, almost 14 years before President John F Kennedy's historic visit. Forged through conflict and struggle, President Kennedy, son of Irish immigrants, would return to his ancestral home to cheers and adulation from the Irish people. He would be the first sitting president to visit the country and the first foreign dignitary to speak on the floor of the Oireachtas, or Irish Parliament.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: I am deeply honored to be your guest in the free parliament of a free Ireland. If this nation had achieved its present political and economic stature a century or so ago, my great grandfather might never have left New Ross. And I might, if fortunate, be sitting down there with you.
MATT PORTER: In a post-war world with both the Soviet Union and the United States battling for influence across the globe, Kennedy had high hopes for Ireland's role in building a lasting peace.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: I am glad, therefore, that Ireland is moving in the mainstream of current world events, for I sincerely believe that your future is as promising as your past is proud and that your destiny lies not as a peaceful island in a sea of troubles, but as a maker and a shaper of world peace.
MATT PORTER: In his speech, President Kennedy reflected on Irish people's contributions throughout history.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: This has never been a rich or powerful country. And yet since earliest times, its influence on the world has been rich and powerful. No larger nation did more to keep Christianity and Western culture alive in their darkest centuries. No larger nation did more to spark the cause of American independence and independence, indeed, around the world. And no larger nation has ever provided the world with more literary or artistic genius.
MATT PORTER: The inspirational speech would leave a mark on the Irish people for decades to come.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: It is that quality of the Irish, the remarkable combination of hope, confidence, and imagination, that is needed more than ever today. The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were and ask why not.
MATT PORTER: One of those Irish citizens who would grow up learning about President Kennedy and his visit that week is Tánaiste Micheál Martin. Martin is the second most senior representative in the Irish government and visited the JFK Presidential Library earlier this year.
MICHEÁL MARTIN: But his is not just an Irish story. It is an immigrant story. And I'm aware that this building regularly hosts ceremonies for new citizens of the United States. It must, I think, be profoundly meaningful for them to hear how an immigrant family, which came to this country with so little, could in the space of a few generations rise to the very pinnacle of political life.
President Kennedy has become a symbol of what is possible for immigrants in this country. When he visited, President Kennedy told us that Ireland's hour had come and that our role on the global stage was to ensure peace and freedom. Ireland listened to his call. We may be a small country. But we play an active role in the world, promoting the rules-based international order.
MATT PORTER: Martin says JFK's visit remains a foundational moment in the Republic of Ireland's history through today.
MICHEÁL MARTIN: His visit to our country is woven into our collective memory. His youth, enthusiasm, wonderful oratory, and the impression he made left a lasting legacy and inspired a generation of Irish people to believe that the only limitations on Ireland were those we placed upon ourselves.
His visit is a symbol of the broader relationship between our two countries, of how Ireland shaped the United States and how the United States, in turn, has shaped Ireland, a symbol of our immigrant history that affected so many of our sons and daughters, of Ireland taking its place in the world to promote the values of peace and democracy, and of how our diaspora abroad has played its part in bringing peace and prosperity to their ancestral homeland. Most of all, it is a symbol of a deep connection between our two countries that stretches back generations and that strengthens even as it evolves.
MATT PORTER: One of Ireland's most challenging issues of peace in the last 60 years was with its own challenge of the conflict between the British governed Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Later in the decade, a deadly conflict between the two countries and Protestant and Catholic populations would emerge that would continue through the 1990s. It wouldn't be until 1998 when those affected by the violence on all sides would come together to negotiate a peace known as the Good Friday Agreement.
The peacemakers who helped make the resolution possible would take some inspiration from Kennedy's words. Joining me now is one of those Good Friday negotiators, Monica McWilliams, co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition and a delegate for the Good Friday talks. She was one of several John F Kennedy Profile and Courage Honorees for her work on the peace agreement. She is now a professor emeritus at the Transitional Justice Institute at the University of Ulster in Belfast. Monica, Thank you for joining us.
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: Thank you for inviting me.
MATT PORTER: Monica, this episode is about the 60th anniversary of JFK's trip to Ireland. And we'll certainly talk about Kennedy later in this episode. But the reason we wanted to speak to you was your role in the Good Friday Accords, the peace process in Ireland in the mid-1990s. So for people who aren't familiar with the conflict, can you tell us a little bit about what life was like in Ireland and Northern Ireland before the peace process, just so people can have an idea of what was going on?
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: It was pretty grim. It was unsafe for during my time at university as a student. So we tended to huddle together around the university. And when had Ukrainians here last week, I was hosting local government representatives. And they couldn't believe that we had such a terrible conflict, nor could they believe that it was protracted, that it went on for 30 years.
I tell people that I was marching for civil rights when I was 14, when the conflict first broke out in the late '60s. And I was 44 years of age when I became a signatory to the Good Friday Agreement. So for those 30 years, I knew nothing about peace. What was extraordinary was that the conflict had become so normal. We didn't think it was ever going to end. I'm mighty relieved that we've now celebrated the 25th anniversary.
I, myself, experienced having to get out of my own home because of a bomb. And my own home in the village, first, when I was very young, was blown up three times. Luckily, the structure stayed. The roof tiles came off. The windows were blown in. And it was actually the IRA who had planted that bomb in the little electricity substation, which we didn't even know was a substation until the bomb went off.
The village itself at one stage had a 750-pound bomb which blew most of the shops to smithereens. And then I moved to Belfast and witnessed terrible conflict in the streets, witnessed a young man being shot dead as I rode past him on my bicycle.
And then for me, the worst personal incident was my very good friend at the university, student friend, Michael Mallon, was shot dead during the Ulster Worker Council strike. And unfortunately, many years later, we had the horrifying details in a court case that he had been tortured before four bullets had been put through his head and his body dumped on the student playing fields, near the student playing fields, where he and I often met on a Wednesday afternoon.
So it was a pretty horrendous time. And we thought every day couldn't get any worse the next day. And oftentimes, it did. So when the ceasefires were declared in '94, we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. And eventually, when the peace talks were declared, we started letting our kind of frozen watchfulness begin to melt.
And then on the day of Good Friday, we finally signed that peace agreement. And I think the whole country just-- first, they couldn't believe it, that the politicians who had been such enemies and then opponents were now prepared to make peace, share power, put human rights at the Foundation of how we'd live our lives in the future on all sides. And it was a mighty big mighty big transition. And we're still working out at 25 years later.
MATT PORTER: And it's unfathomable to hear the things you just described, as someone who-- I knew about it, but didn't really live through it or understand the immensity of it. Before we get to the Accords, again, just for people who aren't as familiar, can you tell us a little bit about the parties and the conflict that you had briefly just mentioned, the IRA. Tell us a little bit about the sides and where things were at the time of the ceasefire.
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: Well, I think it's important to make the point that there were really three sides in the actual violence, in the militancy of the conflict. There were, of course, the well-known IRA. There was also the loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Volunteer Force, probably the longest of them. And they eventually formed a political party that came to the peace talks, called the Progressive Unionist Party and sat down with Sinn Féin.
The other loyalists, known as the Ulster Defense Association, also became a political party, the Ulster Democratic Party, and sat down at the negotiations. And the British government were would be regarded as the kind of third side in this because of the role of the British Army. And they sat down at the peace negotiations with, indeed, the prime minister at times coming to the table.
The Irish government, which, if you were a Unionist, would also say the Irish government were a player in this process in that they felt that there should have been more legislation in terms of not allowing so many IRA to rest in the Republic of Ireland across the border and from which they believe some of those bombs were planned. So there were a number of sides in the room.
And then there were the constitutional parties, the old Ulster Unionist Party and the famous SDLP, Social Democratic Labor Party, led by John Hume. The leaders of both those parties went on to get the Nobel Peace Prize because of the peace agreement, and then smaller parties. Initially, that first year, the Democratic Unionist Party led by Reverend Ian Paisley was at the table. But he walked out with his party when Sinn Féin came in after the first year when they released the IRA reinstated its ceasefire.
And the smaller parties were ourselves, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, coming from civil society, getting very well organized within the six weeks when the peace talks were declared, and succeeding in getting elected. And there was one other cross-community party at the table called the Alliance Party. So in total, as we approached the final deadline of the Good Friday of 1998, there were eight parties at the table and two governments.
MATT PORTER: And you briefly mentioned you were leading the smaller group of Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. Tell us about that, your leadership there, and how you ended up as part of the peace process.
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: Well, for all of the years of the conflict, the women had been on the front line. They'd been at the interfaces. They'd been on the peace line, trying to build relationships between both sides so that their children would not end up either being recruited as combatants or dead in terms of the violence that was all around the place. And many did.
And so the women were very much in favor of speaking to each other long before the peace talks. And so we came to the conclusion that if there were to be peace talks, we had a set of principles, but we were also pragmatic enough to know that we would have to reach a balanced accommodation because we had been doing that ourselves in the communities.
Many of us had been working on issues of domestic violence, on sex abuse. And as you know, they make no distinction between religion, between political identity, between class. And when we used to provide shelter, refuge, and support for women who came from both sides because the police could not often police those issues, we realized that we had as much in common as we had in terms of our differences. And we brought that to the table.
So both in terms of the process, we were inclusive. We wanted a comprehensive deal in terms of the substance. And we wanted it based on human rights. So we made those our three principles, equality, inclusion, human rights. We tested ourselves by them and also tested any policies or any proposals that we were putting on the table by those three principles. And they served us well.
And we reached out to the other parties when they first came. When parties were not speaking to each other, we women, as facilitators and mediators, along with our role as negotiators, ensured that we were speaking to every party. It makes for better negotiations, when some of those parties, in particular the Ulster Unionist Party, refused to meet, never mind speak, to their opponents, Sinn Féin, because they associated them with the IRA, and they would often say it was a strength never to speak to them, nor did they intend to do so until they tested them through the peace talks and through the final agreement.
MATT PORTER: And did your three pillars in the end, in the final agreement, how did that turn out for what you were hoping would be in the agreement? Did it meet or exceed your expectations?
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: Well my message to others who are outsiders and become insiders is prepare, prepare, prepare. You don't often get much help from the big-- as we said, the big beasts around the table, the big parties, who have been in formerly failed sets of negotiations. But indeed, they had a number of papers. And we prepared on the basis of those and then began to build on what was there and addressed the gaps.
And it was the gaps in particular that we were concerned about. What would happen to the victims? Normally in peace agreements, it's the combatants, the armed groups at the table and the constitutional parties. You rarely get groups or representatives of the victims at the table from civil society. And we had those within our party.
And we were very pleased in final agreement that there is a section on reconciliation and the needs of victims. It's a small section, that I had to go back again, I would have made it a much more detailed section. But at least it was there. It's better to have it in and not cry afterwards about what you wished you had done. And so we learned a lot of lessons as we progressed and which I now give to other women who are negotiating peace agreements for their societies. The human rights section of the agreement is strong.
And later, I became the chief commissioner for human rights. And again, I wished that the proposal for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland had been more specific in the sense that it asked the Human Rights Commission to scope out advice, which we did. And I presented that back in 2010 to what was then the conservative government and still is. And they left it sitting in Downing Street on 10 Downing Street. It's on a shelf. And it has never been brought forward into legislation at Westminster.
So it again taught us a lesson about enforcement, that on a peace agreement, it may be good proposals. But in the end of the day, they're words on paper. And unless you have good oversight, good monitoring, and enforcement, you may not-- some of those proposals may not see the light of day. So as I said 25 years later, I'm still working on issues like that and on the prisoner releases. That was contested. In every conflict, there is the release and reintegration of prisoners. There's demobilization. There's disarmament and decommissioning of weapons. And these were all regarded as the hard issues.
And actually, we did some of those quite quickly and reform of policing from a police force to a police service and reintegrated prisoners, but not in the sense of rehabilitation or not in the sense that some of them would stand down. And I am currently a commissioner, one of four, we're still trying to have a process in place for the disbandment and the ending of those paramilitary organizations that did not go away when they should have in the years following the peace agreement.
MATT PORTER: So still a long way to go in some cases. When the accord was agreed to in principle and had to be put to a vote, obviously, it passed. But what was it like for you as part of that process? Were there concerns that it wouldn't? What was it like heading into that vote?
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: It was a very anxious time. Because of the issue of prisoner releases, many, many people felt it was a step too far to release the prisoners two years. There were still only about 700 prisoners still in jail. There had been between 20,000 and 30,000 in total during those years of conflict. But people felt that those who had been life sentenced for human rights violations and for terrible offenses should not have been able to walk free after two years.
But there was a condition that if they did return to violence or rejoin their former combatant organizations, they would not be allowed to remain free, that they would be returned to prison. So it was a sign of the peace agreement that very, very few were actually ever returned to prison. And that's why our peace agreement is held up as a success story.
That wasn't to say that all of the smaller armed groups decided to demobilize. Some of them were against the agreement. On the Republican side, we have dissident Republicans. And on the loyalist side, they felt that since they didn't make it into politics, they felt that they were put back out into the cold. And some of them remained with the structures of paramilitary organizations.
So it was a very, very difficult time. But I would give credit to the former combatants who came out in those six weeks between the signing of the agreement and the referendum to say that the war was over, that there was no going back to violence. And when the victims of the conflict heard that, they made big sacrifices and decided that that was the only way forward. And they voted yes, many of them.
We knew on the Irish Republican and nationalist side, in other words, the Catholic side, that there would be probably a majority who would vote yes. We were not certain of that on the Protestant Unionist side. And we were right because most of the anti-agreement work that was going on-- and it was huge from Reverend Ian Paisley's side of the house-- was to say no.
And it is very easy to say no. It's much more complicated to explain what was in the agreement for people to say yes. So we worked ourselves into the ground and burnt the shoe leather, as we went from door to door, street to street, village to village. And we got a huge big double-decker bus. We took our children with us. And we went around the whole of the country with loudspeakers asking people to say yes and to come out in their huge numbers because it was an opportunity that would never come around again in history, we felt, if the people had said no.
And luckily, on the 22nd of May, 25 years ago, there was an overwhelming majority. 7 out of 10 in Northern Ireland voted for peace. And over 9 out of 10 in the Republic of Ireland voted for peace in terms of voting yes. Some people say that when they voted no, they weren't against peace. They were simply against the fact that they felt the agreement was too big a compromise for them. And some of those people still exist. And they've raised their heads again around the issue of Brexit.
So it's interesting, the connections between those who were on the anti-agreement side and those who were for Brexit are still quite vociferous. And it's still quite difficult to reach an accommodation on these issues because in the end of the day, they're down to the question of whether you want to be part of the united Ireland or whether you want to be part of the United Kingdom.
And that referendum still exists because there was a proposal in the Good Friday Agreement that should the consent principle ever change, and that there was a Democratic majority in favor, that the secretary of state would call a referendum on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland.
So some people say that has left Unionist community unsettled, whilst those on the nationalist side, who are now in the demographic majority, demanding that this referendum be called. So as I said, peace building goes on and on. And it's still an issue for us, to make sure that we never return to violence, but to settle these issues in a democratic peaceful way.
MATT PORTER: I want to turn to the discussion a little bit to President Kennedy for this part of the conversation. First, President Kennedy obviously spoke in Ireland prior to when the troubles really started in the later '60s. Did his relationship with Ireland or as a figure, an Irish figure, out there from the United States, did that have any impact, maybe, particularly for the United States, to be a trusted conduit in the process? Or where did President Kennedy, if he fell anywhere, fell during this whole period?
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: My recollection as a very young girl when the television first came into our home was watching the pictures of President Kennedy and the delight in my family and in many other Catholic families, I guess, that there was a Catholic who had made it into the White House.
And I guess that resonated with Catholics in Northern Ireland because the Catholics in Northern Ireland were very much regarded as second class citizens in relation to the civil rights issues of fair housing, fair employment, and the right to vote because of gerrymandering, which Americans would be familiar with. And so when this iconic leader took over and a brilliant orator, the Irish-- and because he had Irish heritage, people in Northern Ireland in particular flocked to their television sets and their radios to hear their speeches.
I remember at school, we would be allowed time out of class when he visited Ireland to watch that and to listen and all of us standing around in circles for this momentous occasion. And then sadly, when he died, again, the country came to a standstill in honor of his memory. And those images never leave you because they're kind of the foundation of your earliest memories. And it was incredible for us that we had that connection.
It was later that the connections began to be built under President Carter in terms of the potential for peace in Ireland. And I have great admiration for him and for those who came after President Kennedy because the continuity was built a bit like a snowball, just gathering momentum, until finally, it came under President Clinton's presidency and continues right up to the present day under President Biden.
So it's been quite an incredible journey. And I've met many of the presidents, including President Carter, and all the presidents from President Clinton onwards. So it's been amazing the contribution that the United States has given to such a small country. And in particular, I think the diaspora were important in terms of keeping that connection and raising the issue of sustaining the peace in Northern Ireland, first making it, ensuring we didn't break it, and now, sustaining it. And that has gone on for decades.
So the people of Ireland, and Northern Ireland in particular, owe a huge debt of gratitude because Americans didn't have to send us soldiers. They sent us diplomats, teachers, sports trainers, and people who made a huge difference to the lives of people like me, but also to young people, growing up in a very conflicted society, and giving us the opportunity to go to the United States and see a very different picture and coming home and using what we had learned there and applying it to our own process. So as a foreign policy example, it really does stand out as one of the United States' good stories.
MATT PORTER: When you listened to President Kennedy speak in Ireland addressing the Irish Parliament, part of that speech, he talks about the optimistic future of Ireland as peacemakers, the Irish as peacemakers. He mentions that-- obviously, again, this is before the troubles become more of an issue. But now, we're kind of, again, 60 years removed from when President Kennedy first called the Irish the potential to be great peacemakers around the world. How do you feel the country is now living up 60 years later to that hope from Kennedy's speech to the Irish Parliament?
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: Well, I hope we are living up to it. But the words that I remember and that I had to write an examination answer to was, what would you say to President Kennedy's words, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?" And those words, I think, apply to peacemakers, and in terms of he was way ahead of his time in thinking about Ireland and the possibility of potential peacemakers.
And as President Mandela said to us when we went to South Africa to hear their story, he said, go home and grow your peacemakers, grow your leaders, because at that stage, we were looking at other countries and their leaders. And indeed, President Kennedy was one of them, as was President Mandela.
And it was incredible that we've now been able to do that, that many people here complained bitterly about not having good leaders that would make the peace and keep the peace. And eventually, we did show the rest of the world that that was possible. And that's a really powerful message, that you have to sit down with your enemies, not with your friends, if you're going to make peace. And it was with them that you have to build the trust to make sure that that peace is embedded in your culture.
And so President Kennedy certainly had tapped into that. And as a young person, I was very taken by his leadership and by his oratory and by his speeches. I once had the opportunity to address the Massachusetts Senate in Boston. And I was told that that's where he made a very powerful speech, his last speech, because he had also sat in those seats before he left to go to Washington as president.
And as I addressed the members of that house, I recalled the impact that he had on me and how privileged I was to be standing in front of them, almost five decades later, addressing them and using his example and using his words, in order for us to see how we could build a different way forward.
MATT PORTER: And last question is that way forward, you're kind of looking towards the future-- we discussed this slightly. But what do you think the future holds for Ireland and Northern Ireland relations? What's needed to keep the peace? And is it possible we could see the two places grow even closer together in the next 25 years?
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: Indeed, it is. And people have come to me and said that they never dreamed that their children could now aspire to things that they could have only once thought of as being a dream. And now, their children are doing these things, and indeed, as my own are, coming home safely and looking forward to jobs and prosperity here in Northern Ireland. And that's growing.
And if we settle this European issue with Brexit, with the United Kingdom and Ireland, I think that this Northern Ireland will be a very, very good place for investment and business and jobs. And that's the future for our young people. And there tends not to be so much conflict when people have advantages and opportunities.
And you can see there are places that are still left behind. And those are the places that I'm still determined will benefit from the peace dividend. And the United States understands that issue too. It also understands the issue of how you have to walk across the aisles, talk to the people that disagree with, and make for a better livelihood for all.
And that's what we're now doing. And I'm hoping that my children will grow up-- I know they will, and they are-- with a very, very different life than the one that I led. And that's what we should be doing, is leaving, building back better, and leaving the place better than how we found it.
MATT PORTER: Monica, thank you so much for your time and your stories. We really appreciate listening to it.
MONICA MCWILLIAMS: Thank you.
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MATT PORTER: Today, the Irish have another favorite son in the White House. President Joe Biden, like Kennedy, has a strong affinity to his Irish ancestors. In a previous JFK 35 episode, we spoke with Professor of Irish and American History Marion Casey at New York University. She recalls the letter she and her students received from President Biden after his inauguration.
MARION CASEY: Yes. We were very honored to receive-- just under a month after his inauguration last year in 2021, he wrote this. And I'll just read a couple of paragraphs from it. "Dear friends, I write to you as a descendant of the Bluets from County Mayo and the Finnegans of County Louth of an Irish-American family that imbued in me a sense of pride that spoke of both continents, a heart and soul that drew from old and new, of pride in community, faith, and above all, family.
And to the students of Glucksman Ireland House, I look forward to working with you as well. You are part of one of the most gifted, tolerant, and talented generations ever, as your ancestors were before you, be it once dreamers and realists, compassionate, yet demanding. Embrace our interdependence and be sustained by a spirit of resilience, peace, and possibility. This is your time to write the next great chapter of two great nations and two great friends. Sincerely, Joe Biden. PS, the son of Catherine Eugenia Finnegan."
MATT PORTER: And for Tánaiste Micháel Martin, he confirms Biden shares the same affinity for Ireland and its poets as JFK did 60 years earlier.
MICHEÁL MARTIN: More than anybody since President Kennedy-- and I've been at European Council meetings and at summits in Madrid between NATO and Europe, and you have the President of America there. And I'm there as kind of a small member state, but inside the European Council when he came last March.
And he just starts off with 27 European leaders, saying, Taoiseach knows I'm a great fan of Irish poets-- you know the line-- not because I'm Irish, but they're the best poets. And then I get all these European leaders coming up to me saying, you guys are really into poetry in Ireland? And you recite it like that all the time? And I said, yeah, of course, we do. And he did the same in Europe. It was Heaney. And in Madrid, it was William Butler Yeats.
MATT PORTER: And now today, Ireland is fulfilling President Kennedy's dream of being a global peacemaker. The country recently finished a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council. Its development programs help some of the poorest countries in the world. And the country has taken in 75,000 Ukrainians fleeing conflict, which is equal to roughly 1.5% of its population. For Micheál Martin, the cause of promoting peace in the world is rooted in what it means to be Irish.
MICHEÁL MARTIN: We are working with partners, including the United States. We advanced a number of important global issues on peace building, conflict prevention, and working to ensure accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. We see our role in the world as being shaped by our history.
MATT PORTER: All of this was set in motion in part by President Kennedy's call 60 years ago to the Irish Parliament. At the end of the speech, Kennedy called on Ireland to be peacemakers, using the words of one of their own poets, George William Russell.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: A great Irish poet once wrote, "I believe profoundly in the future of Ireland, that this is an isle of destiny, that that destiny will be glorious, and that when our hour is come, we will have something to give to the world." My friends, Ireland's hour has come. You have something to give to the world. And that is a future of peace with freedom. Thank you.
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MATT PORTER: President Kennedy inspired a generation to public service when he was elected in 1960.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: But I believe that the times require imagination and courage and perseverance. I'm asking each of you to be pioneers towards that new frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age, to the stout in spirit, regardless of party, to all who respond to the scriptural call, be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be dismayed.
MATT PORTER: But how is that new frontier spirit carried on the generations who have no living memory of the Kennedy administration? We will hear from leaders of more recent generations who are carrying on Kennedy's New Frontier spirit in their work next on Let Us Begin.
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