JFK's Ireland Visit Marked With Family Reunion

By David Blevins, Ireland Correspondent

It was in June 1963 when President Kennedy returned to the quayside from which his great grandfather had emigrated and expressed his pleasure "at being back from whence I came".

He told an audience of hundreds that there was an impression in Washington there were no Kennedys left in Ireland and invited his distant relatives to raise their hands.

"I'm glad to see there are still a few - the few who missed the boat," he joked. It is 150 years since John Fitzgerald Kennedy's ancestors set sail to escape the famine.

JFK's cavalcade in Dublin

Patrick Kennedy could never have imagined that his great grandson would become president or that his dynasty would play such an influential role in the politics of the US.

A third cousin of John F Kennedy still lives in the ancestral home in New Ross.

Patrick Grennan found so many tourists on his doorstep, he opened a visitor centre.

He said: "I'm eighth generation, it feels normal to me. We were brought up here, so were my great grandparents, my grandparents and so on. It's just a normal thing."

The quayside at New Ross from where the Kennedys emigrated to the US

President Kennedy's sister, Jean Kennedy Smith, will sail back into New Ross on a naval vessel. His daughter Caroline and only grandson, Jack Schlossberg, are also expected to join the gathering.

The eternal flame from the presidential grave in Arlington has been brought to Ireland. With it, the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny will ignite an emigrant flame on the New Ross quayside.

Some of the younger Kennedys are meeting their Irish cousins for the first time. This is the year of 'The Gathering' in Ireland, a year-long homecoming for the Irish diaspora.

President Kennedy's niece, Kiki, said: "Our hearts are warmed by the welcome that we've gotten ... the people have made us really feel like it is a true homecoming."

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