JFK's State Visit to Ireland: 60th Anniversary

A Journey Home: Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of President Kennedy’s Visit to Ireland

“This is not the land of my birth, but it is the land for which I hold the greatest affection.”

--President John F. Kennedy

Dublin, Ireland

June 26, 1963

Passionate about history from a young age, John F. Kennedy grew up with a keen interest in his family’s ancestry. His mother Rose recalled, “Jack delighted in his Irish heritage, and perhaps took a more than ordinary interest in it because of the stories he had heard from his grandparents, handed down to them by their parents..."

In his lifetime, Kennedy made five visits to the land of his forbears. Each brought with it new discoveries and connections, but it was his last visit, as President of the United States in June 1963, that meant the most to him personally. As the first Irish-Catholic president and the first sitting president of the United States to visit Ireland, JFK captured the hearts and imaginations of those living in the country from which all his great-grandparents had fled during the potato famine of the 1840’s.

Over the four days of his state visit, the President met with his Irish cousins, was entertained by the Irish president and prime minister, and received honorary degrees and the highest decorations any city could bestow on a visiting dignitary. Kennedy was clearly moved by every gesture. Perhaps none meant more to him, however, than those made by each of the hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens who clogged the streets and fields of the cities, towns and villages on the presidential itinerary hoping to catch a glimpse of this most famous son of Ireland, briefly clasp his hand or quite simply welcome him “home”.