RSS
Periscope


Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Jackie Kennedy was a complete snob about the Irish and others

Periscope

by Niall O'Dowd

Jackie Kennedy was a complete snob about the Irish and others

Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 08:16 AM
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail
comment on article 39 Comments
See more: John F Kennedy  

RSS


Recent Posts

Archives

submit to reddit

New book highlights her disdain for those less exalted

What comes across in the new book about Jackie Onassis and her conversations with historian Arthur Schlesinger is how much of a snob she was.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, she was after all a child born into privilege, Yale-educated father and a wealthy Irish American mother.

Art history, poetry, French history and literature were her preferred pursuits we read and you might also add, contempt for those lesser classes who failed to see the importance of such aesthetic pursuits.

Consistently, throughout the book that snobbishness comes through.

She dislikes her mother-in-law Rose Kennedy because she is too Catholic and has a persecution complex.

She dislikes the Irish mafia around Kennedy because she thinks they are very bitter people.

Why she even complains about Irish stew being made in the White House kitchen and she wants to replace it with proper French cuisine.

She dislikes Lyndon Johnson because he’s a Texas rube who should not be trusted with anything.

She dislikes Martin Luther King because he had affairs.

____________

Read More:

Jackie Kennedy disliked the Irish and cooking Irish stew

Jackie Kennedy believed LBJ had her husband killed new tape shows

Controversial Jackie O tapes - First Lady talks openly about her adultery and JFK’s assassination

Top ten facts about Wexford - ‘Through water and fire’ – PHOTOS

____________

She fails to see the complete person in all her comments, merely taking the superficial as the reality.

Johnson and King together dragged civil rights into the 20th century.

They have no equal in history.

The Irish mafia that she complained about propelled Kennedy to the presidency and played key roles in creating the ‘Camelot’ mystique right after he was killed.

On the other hand every obscure French or foreign intellectual, painter, artiste is treated as the greatest genius on earth. Most are now utterly forgotten

Perhaps she was a woman of her times, afraid to go beneath the manners and the social niceties that dominated a wife’s role back in the early 1960s.

Typical of the period her husband could do not wrong, Jack Kennedy comes across as an almost saintly presence, ironic when we know now he was all too human when it came to human failings.

She knew of course, but choose to bury it in the fashion of the times but canonizing her husband makes her book far less authentic.

Jackie Kennedy proved herself before and after leaving the White House, becoming a woman of the world.

She raised two great kids, given the incredible pressure she was under.

She also saved so many historic buildings in Washington from developers not to mention landmarks such as Grand Central Station in New York that her legacy as a great First Lady is secure.

But there is no doubt also a French-influenced disdain for the unwashed who failed to see the greatness in idle intellectual pursuit and vanity.

Perhaps we should never be surprised that our heroes are mere mortals after all.

In her own voice in this new book, Jackie makes all that abundantly clear.

See more: John F Kennedy, Jackie Onassis, Irish American



print this article Print
email this articleE-mail

39 Comments

15 - 39 | See all comments

crowsnest | Sep 17, 2011, 11:57 AM EDT
WOW !!! WHY DON'T YOU TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL CEOLAS7 -

Report abuse

Towngate | Sep 16, 2011, 12:15 PM EDT
Tiny point below: Ahern was Prime Minister known in Gaelic as "An Taoiseach" (pron: 'un tee-shock' ) - never President.

Report abuse

ceolas7 | Sep 16, 2011, 08:51 AM EDT
A complete snob? Well, my 100% Irish grandmother, who emigrated to the US in the 1930s, had the same opinion of many Irish people, and her opinion was based on the fact that they were their own worst enemy, and her predictions of what that kind of Irish person would do to Ireland has been extremely accurate, when you look at the state of the Irish nation today. What's more, my Irish grandmother, wasn't an elite, wasn't wealthy, but working class. She was Catholic, loved God, her family and admired JFK. As an adult, I've gone from admiring the Irish, to despising them. When I see how their politicians, like fat Bertie Ahern, crack jokes about trading people as little more than chattel, given what I know what people like my grandparents went through, and how the Irish themselves are so lacking in any kind of decency and moral outrage, given what should be a sense of history, sat in silence and refused to speak out against their then president Ahern.. it only confirmed to me that Irish ancestry is nothing to be proud of. My grandmother would have been spitting angry if she'd been alive to read his words. The Irish, who rationalized the slaughter of innocents, in aid of their desire for sovereignty gave away their freedom to the EU, all in the name of hatred, are damnable fools and only deserving of what they get. Jackie Kennedy wasn't looking down on poor people, she referred to wealthy, Irish Americans who stewed in their bitterness and hatred, which is a fool's game, and unhealthy. She wouldn't want that sick disease infecting her children. She knew from her own childhood that sort of thing destroys lives. It's not a personal strength. And given what her so grandchildren are like, Caroline's diseased daughters are a disgrace, they live as little more than prostitutes, irregardless of their wealth and privilege. Caroline herself is no better, she's an absolute disgrace herself.

Report abuse

lonejourney1 | Sep 15, 2011, 05:28 PM EDT
yea right daughter of Black Jack Bouvier notorious drunk, gambler (Jackie's mother divorced him because he gambled away the family money) and skirt chaser. Now that is what I call really highclass. When you come from trash like that you shouldn't be looking down your nose at anyone. I guess she was one of those people who think that money makes them better than everyone else. She was a sad housewife in a marriage with a man who slept around on her constantly. She had to pretend that she was better than everyone else or otherwise she would have to confront the fact that she was so plain and unintersting that she couldn't even keep her husbands interest. JFK had a GF when they married he only married Jackie because she fit what he need for his political ambitions. Nice thing to be a "prop" no wonder she did not like the Irish.

Report abuse

dv727dv | Sep 15, 2011, 04:52 PM EDT
Well, whether or not she is a "bad" person is one thing. What this bigoted snobbery demonstrates is (1)"Camelot" was and is a fraud, and (2) she was not any "iconic" person near worthy of the blind idolization heaped on her by trendy media and fools too blind to recognize faults. If those who rationalize this behavior continue to do so, they'd best be consistent and do so for others not named "Kennedy," and for others not as left-of-center as the Kennedys.

Report abuse

Fastest | Sep 15, 2011, 01:58 PM EDT
So what! For those old enough to remember the early 60's, racism was rampant. While racism exists today just as it did then, the cast of characters have changed, not the attitudes' themselves.

Report abuse

Towngate | Sep 15, 2011, 01:08 PM EDT
Niall: Don't be silly! How can an American be a snob? They've only just gotten used to wearing shoes! and as for this person barely above hawking and touting her sad ass-ets to the highest bidder! ...It is good these tapes are 'out' ... it might prevent yet more American 'Tin Gaaads' being created, and the truth about their feet of clay being known, so intelligent Americans can make up their own minds.

Report abuse

Bailey2000 | Sep 15, 2011, 06:10 AM EDT
Marrying into a big Irish Greek Jewish Russian or whatever family I am sure would bring out the groan in all of us. Lets not be too sensitive because she wasn't too sold on her mother in law. Not the first or the last. As for not rating LBJ or Martin Luther King....hey she was calling it like she saw it. We hear I have a dream and we forget that he was maybe a sleazeball too!

Report abuse

firinne | Sep 15, 2011, 01:20 AM EDT
I sincerely feel that for Niall and along with a few others here that they had watched this program with a predisposed set of prejudices, and that by locking onto a comment here and wee piece of bent history there, they now come across with an opinion of Jackie O as a snobbish French woman and that she hated the low class Irish that she felt surrounded her husband while he was in office. Let us all step back and take a deep breath for a moment. History defines Jackie as a cultured and talented woman who was a devoted and caring wife to her husband Jack Kennedy and their two children, which she raised as two very bright and fine human beings. At a relative young age, she was thrown into a high powered life as First Lady, and then made a widow horribly before millions of people around the world. JFK had designed and fostered the Civil Rights programs before he died and these were the programs the LBJ picked up and continued along with Martin Luther King jr. All of these men were human, and their sins were similar to those of many other men, both leaders and followers alike! The venom of some the comments here seems so out of place for good Irish folks. Slan

Report abuse

Springfield9 | Sep 14, 2011, 11:10 PM EDT
My, my, our very own Marie Antoinette. How gracious of her to take her nearly bankrupt tush to the Kennedy compound and offer to share her mindless glory. The railroader, James Hill, had an unassuming Irish born wife. She only built the Great Cathedral of st. Paul. (dowdy thing that she was).

Report abuse

bunkerisland | Sep 14, 2011, 07:53 PM EDT
Sounds like so much gossip not worthy of a read.

Report abuse

Woodman | Sep 14, 2011, 07:43 PM EDT
So Rev Martin Luther King was having orgies the same time he made his "I have a dream speech." This was recorded on audiotape by the FBI. And that did not put the Civil Rights movement in danger? But Jackie is bad for criticizing King. And all the people here including this Down character criticize Jackie but not King. That really takes the cake.

Report abuse

AngelPrecious | Sep 14, 2011, 06:22 PM EDT
@ggoldeyLOL, the French comment was funny! I have been wondering if the writers from IC, especially Niall, have been suffering from the same problem the past few days!

Report abuse

oaklongan | Sep 14, 2011, 05:26 PM EDT
Jackie Kennedy: exalted FROM WHAT? We're ALL mortals.

Report abuse

ggoldey | Sep 14, 2011, 02:40 PM EDT
Come on Niall...you couldn't have missed her swipe at the French!?!?!? Or are you sufferin' from the Irish 'persecution complex'. !! :)

Report abuse





Connect to IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or Sign-Up directly

Already Registered? Sign-In!

Welcome to IrishCentral!
Please provide the following information in order to create your account

Username:
E-Mail Address:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy


Already Registered? Sign-In!
Forgot my password

Welcome to IrishCentral!
All we need is the following information and you will be part of the #1 Irish community in the US

E-Mail Address:
First select a unique username:
Username:
Now choose a password:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
Thank you!

Just one more step and you will be part of the largest Irish community in America! Tell us a little more about you to start enjoying all the features of IrishCentral.

Additional Information:

First Name:
Last Name:
Date of Birth:
Zip:
Gender: Male  Female 
Country:
Degree of Irishness:
Household Income:
Level of Education:

Subscribe to our newsletters:

The Best of IrishCentral - Daily Newsletter
Special Offers from our sponsors

or
Skip

You can edit your information at any time, just go to "my account" when you're logged in.

Log into IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

E-Mail:
Password:
 Remember me Forgot my password
Not a member? Register Now!
submit to reddit
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail