Actress Fionnula Flanagan to be honored at Ireland’s first official Fourth of July celebration

Wexford town celebrates its links with the Kennedys and US and Hall of Fame

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

6 Comments

Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan

Photo by Jim Fiscus/Showtime

Tweet

American based Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan and the late Liam Clancy are to he honored at Ireland’s first official Fourth of July festival. They will be inaugurated into the Irish America Hall of Fame.

Los Angeles resident Flanagan and Clancy will be feted when the town of New Ross hosts its first Irish America festival to celebrate Independence Day.

Dublin native Flanagan is to be inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame at the Dunbrody Visitor Centre in New Ross. Irish America Magazine, our sister publication, created the Irish America Hall of Fame.

Previous inductees who attended at the New York leg included President William Clinton and Ford Chairman William Clay Ford.

Leitrim-born Clancy will be honoured posthumously at the same ceremony.

The Hall of Fame presentation is just one of a number of events to mark the American holiday in New Ross, the ancestral homeland of President John F Kennedy.

Organisers expect thousands to make the journey to the Wexford town to celebrate its close links with America.

JFK’s great-grandparents, Patrick Kennedy and Bridget Murphy, both emigrated from New Ross, as did the grandparents of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

The Irish Times reports that events will include a flag-raising ceremony on the quayside followed by a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party at the Dunbrody famine ship.

A reading of the US Declaration of Independence is also scheduled before the day closes with a spectacular fireworks display over the river Barrow.

More information is available at irishamericaday.com.

Print

E-mail

Tweet