Members of the Kennedy clan are to be invited to Galway next summer to take part in the celebrations honouring the 50th anniversary of the visit of President John F Kennedy to the city in June 1963.
The invitation to the event will be made under the dual umbrella of the JFK50 celebrations and also as part of The Gathering, Failte Ireland’s promotional programme which aims to encourage the Irish diaspora to visit Ireland over the 12 months.
It is not yet known which member of the Kennedy family will be invited to Galway, but there are hopes that the president’s daughter Caroline will be asked to attend the ceremony on the exact spot where he made his famous “on a clear day you can see Boston” speech just five months before he was assassinated in Dallas.
Mayor O’Flaherty who has longheld political and personal connections with the Kennedy clan in Hyannisport through her late mother Bridie made the announcement during her annual Christmas messages on Galway Bay fm on Christmas Day.
“I am working on the project and am hopeful that we will have a member of the Kennedy clan with us when we gather to celebrate the visit of President Kennedy.
“On that day, he said ‘I’ll be back, ‘but unfortunately we know that he never got to fulfill that promise. However, it was a momentous occasion for Galway and for the Irish diaspora, given that he made reference to emigrants in his ‘On a clear day’ speech. So it would be most appropriate if a member of his family was to join us in a sort of Gathering to remember the sentiments he expressed in that historic speech,” she said.
It is expected that any celebrations to honour the JFK50 event will be held in Eyre Square, which was renamed Kennedy Park in 1965, two years after the President visited in June 1963. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas just five months after he visited Galway.
His Galway speech is often referred to as the most dynamic acknowledgment of the Irish diaspora by any American president.
“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. And if you did, you would see down working on the docks the O’Dohertys, Flahertys, and Ryans and cousins of yours who have gone to Boston and made good. I wonder if you could, perhaps, let me know how many of you have relatives in America, whom you would admit to? If you would hold up your hands.”
The atmosphere was electric as a slew of hands rose up all over the Square.
Full details of the events to commemorate President Kennedy’s visit to Galway will be made available in late Spring when confirmation about the guest list is expected.
