JFK’s Galway visit recalled as a ‘life changing’ event

The 50th anniversary of the visit of former US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to Galway was marked at a ceremony in Eyre Square yesterday.

A nephew of JFK, Douglas Harriman Kennedy, the son of former US Senator Robert F Kennedy, was guest of honour at the ceremony in Kennedy Square yesterday, which was attended by about 200 people.  

JFK’s visit to Galway – though it lasted just an hour – was described as “one of the greatest moments of the Swinging Sixties”, by Mayor of Galway City, City Councillor Terry O’Flaherty.

She said that when the 35th President of the United States visited Galway, it “changed our lives forever”.

“I, like thousands of others who were in the Square that day, was overawed to think that the most powerful man in the World would be in our midst. And when he spoke he immediately referred to the long association between Galway and Boston.”

The bonds between Boston and Galway are still there today, she said, with major IT and healthcare companies like Digital, Hewlett Packard and Boston Scientific set up their plants in the city.

“This is positive stuff and it can be linked to the confidence instilled by the Kennedy visit in 1963. It was one of the great moments of the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and the inspiration of his short life must never be underestimated.”

John F Kennedy was held in such high esteem across Ireland that during the ‘60s most homes in Ireland had two photographs hanging on the walls: One of Our Lord and one of JFK, she said, in her last official function as mayor.

Mr Douglas Kennedy, a journalist, was accompanied by his wife Molly Elizabeth Stark and their five children, Riley, Micky, Rowen, George and Boru.

A wreath was laid at the Sculpture Garden at Eyre Square where Albert O’Toole’s relief bust of JFK is on display on a plinth, at Kennedy Square which is named after the president who was assassinated months after his visit to Ireland.

Breda Ryan, the wife of the late Paddy Ryan, who was mayor of the city during Kennedy’s visit, and Connacht Tribune Group photographer, Stan Shields, were at the ceremony – both were present in Eyre Square 50 years ago for JFK’s visit.

Douglas Kennedy, the youngest son, and tenth of 11 children of Bobby and Ethel Kennedy, said he didn’t know his uncle or his father “but we were always told about President Kennedy’s trip to Ireland and these were the happiest four days of his life”.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.