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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

50 years ago JFK woke up president---his impact then on small town Ireland

Posted on Monday, November 08, 2010 at 10:26 PM

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Fifty years ago today on November 9th 1960 the world woke up to John F.Kennedy as the first ever Irish Catholic president. It has never been the same since.

The margin of victory was razor-thin, just 112,000 votes, most of them likely supplied illegally by Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago which swung Illinois to Kennedy.

I was seven years old at the time but have the distinct memory of church bells ringing in my native Tipperary town and a sense of excitement among neighbors that something extraordinary had happened.

I have a complete memory of Mrs Ryan, a neighbor, on her way to the creamery with a little silver can, stopping over at the house to discuss the magnificent news and staying on so late that the creamery had shut by the time she got up to leave.

It wasn't long before a picture of John F.Kennedy was hoisted onto our mantelpiece in our best room beside that of Pope John the XXIII. There they both would stay as long as my parents were alive.

It was the same all over Ireland, a profound moment of pride for a country just coming out of a long dark night of economic gloom and mass emigration.

My father could hardly wait for the Irish Press newspaper the next morning with its huge banner headline that Kennedy had been elected. He even bought the Irish Times, the Protestant paper, to see what they were saying.

That Sunday a priest called Father Noonan told our little congregation that some good at last had come out of emigration, that the descendant of a poor Catholic from a town in Wexford not too far distant, fleeing the Famine had become the most powerful man in the world.

Suddenly our little backwater didn't seem so dull and boring anymore. I didn't know it at the time, but at the time a grandson of Tipperary, Pat Brown was governor of California and his son Jerry is now elected once again as Chief Executive.

So Erin's exiles had made their mark across the water in the most powerful land of all. Fifty years ago today it all seemed powerful and promising. The awful events of Dallas just three years later alas, would bring it all back to reality again.

But in those three years Ireland took a massive leap forward and would never be the same again. It implanted firmly for me this notion of a great land to the west where Irish thrived.

Most of all John F.Kennedy's election made us proud, as proud as poor neighbors could be of a neighbor's offspring.

Ireland never seemed so poor or so insular again.

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Monsoonman | Nov 16, 2010, 07:37 PM EST

justhimself: ....nd Tony Montana made a fortune importing high grade cocaine, are you seeking moral equivalency?

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justhimself | Nov 15, 2010, 02:48 PM EST

Sure, old man Kennedy bootlegged whiskey, BUT it was not home made moonshine, he smuggled high quality Canadian whiskey into the US. Just like most of us Irish immigrants smuggle high quality Irish bacon and sausages into the US.Yes, he cheated on his wife, but, not like Irish priests cheat on celebacy. Sure, he inherited the Cuban invasion from the Eisanhower administration, but he handled the missile crises with Kruschev to the benefit of the whole world, the world barley avoided nuclear war, thanks to President Kennnedy, and remember, he was elected to be president of the US, not president of Ireland.

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ironjustice | Nov 11, 2010, 11:49 AM EST

Is it true that the Kennedy family made their fortune from bootlegging alcohol during Prohibition? Yes, it's true. But what's wrong with that?

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maloney | Nov 10, 2010, 05:18 PM EST

Over weight, short & wheelchair bound candidates wouldn't stand a chance of becoming president in the age of TV & the net. You are 100% correct liamkeyes.

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Liamkeyes | Nov 10, 2010, 02:32 PM EST

Kennedy won it on his personality and his great speech writers. The famed Television debate showed Nixon sweating and needing a shave, it would appear that the TV debate gave JFK the White House.

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SeamusMor | Nov 10, 2010, 10:38 AM EST

The Daley dynasty is the best thing that ever happened to Chicago! They made Chicago world famous as "the City that works!" It was not corruption that kept the two greatest mayors in the history of Chicago in office for decades, it was the incorruptibility of Daleys that kept them on top. Mayor Richard J. Daley never broke a law, and had no involvement whatsoever in the handling or counting of votes, except to cast his own ballot. I challenge you to either retract your unsubstantiated accusation,or prove that Mayor Richard J. Daley broke any law during the 1960 campaign!

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Watchman | Nov 09, 2010, 06:22 PM EST

Aj and Ant: You're right. Best, I think, if I take time out. Back in a month!

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antoman | Nov 09, 2010, 12:38 PM EST

@Ajreaper..I have noticed that too.Perhaps the recession is impacting him more than others and he's expressing his angst with the comments he leaves here.

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Ajreaper | Nov 09, 2010, 11:43 AM EST

Watchman just one time I'd like to see you post something positive about anything or anyone that is a topic covered here on Irishcentral.

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Watchman | Nov 09, 2010, 10:39 AM EST

Poor stuff. Not only was JFK a terrible President, the idea that Ireland should have re-defined itself around the notion that one of its emigrant sons had done well for himself in America is pathetic. Sure we were proud and, sure, we put photos of the great man up in the parlour, next to the Sacred Heart and the picture of the Pope. But was that it? Actually, it wasn't. I lived in Dublin in the 1970s and can attest to the fact that it was membership of the EEC – later the European Union – that changed everything, not Kennedy's bought election to the Oval Office. No one under 60 in Ireland talks about Kennedy any more. And why would they? He invaded Cuba (disastrously); he stationed nuclear missiles in Turkey aimed at Russia, thus setting up the Cuban Missile crisis; he ignored Martin Luther King and kept him out of the White House (leaving Johnson to take up the cause of civil rights); he initiated the conflict in Vietnam that was to torment his country for the next 10 years; he was a serial womaniser who makes Clinton look like a (rare) celibate priest; and then, finally, he got himself shot by a delusional eejit in Dallas,thus elevating his status to that of martyred saint. If that's the best Ireland can produce, thank gawd for Obama. His brother Ted, for all his faults, was twice the man Jack ever was.

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Rebelforce | Nov 09, 2010, 09:34 AM EST

Two paragraphs into this "tribute" to the first Irish-Catholic President and Niall O'Dowd parrots certain Kennedy-hating historians by asserting that Nixon was robbed of the election thanks to the electoral corruption of Irish-American Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago. So there you have it folks, it was all really a big sham and a fraud that John Kennedy became President of the US. (This historic moment in Irish-American history brought to you courtesy of IrishCentral)

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Towngate | Nov 09, 2010, 08:20 AM EST

...A pretty proud Puppet until thy cut the strings.

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antoman | Nov 09, 2010, 08:07 AM EST

He gave a fascinating speech to members of the media about the power of elites or secret societys.If I recall correctly Ike gave a somewhat similiar speech about imparting too much power to the military.President Kennedy was quite a man.

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