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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

John F Kennedy shot 48 years ago today - a defining moment for a kid in Ireland - VIDEO

Posted on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 01:11 PM

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John F Kennedy and his wife Jackie O

I was 10 years old sitting in front of a television in my home town of Drogheda in Ireland. The program on RTE, the Irish national station was called 'Air Power' about America's military might and the importance of the latest kind of fighter planes.

It was November 22nd 1963, 48 years ago today.

A world away John F.Kennedy had already made that fatal turn past Dealey Plaza in Dallas to his appointment with death.

A few moments later the TV screen went blank and a long silence followed.

After about five minutes the scene switched to RTE's newsroom.

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A newsreader, Charles Mitchell, the Walter Cronkite of his day, came on. He was usually so unruffled and calm and yet ,on this occasion he looked agitated and ill at ease.

He read a brief statement from United Press International that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.

The screen went blank again

I fetched ny father and mother and soon my brothers and sisters joined us.

We sat looking at the screen, by now showing footage from President Kennedy's recent visit to Ireland, a week of incredible pride for my nation.

Then we switched to BBC and a teary eyed newsreader announced that Kennedy was dead.

To say we were stunned was an understatement.

How could that vibrant brilliant young shining star be quenched so suddenly?

In the long days that followed we felt our innocence had died along with John F.Kennedy.

His brief period in power seemed more like an Irish Aisling, the dream poems where lovers conjured up visions of those they lost and loved.

Even to this day he holds a place in our memories, he has influenced every leader since, he has become the political icon of our time.

Years later I visited Dealey Plaza and the book repository where he had been shot from. It seemed so banal, so small, so anonymous for what monstrous deed had been committed there.

But to a ten year old all those years ago, he represented the first intimation of mortality.

As Shakespeare wrote;

"In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire."

Here's some of the live feed of the news from November 22nd 1963:

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JOHNTOBIN | Nov 24, 2011, 05:55 PM EST

I can still remember that day clearly.It came over the radio at 7.20am on Saturday the 23rd.of November Melbourne time.I went to the pictures that afternoon in the city and the afternoon newspaper,The Herald,and the Kennedy assasination was right across the front of the first page.The whole day is still very clear in my mind.

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RedBranch | Nov 23, 2011, 11:48 AM EST

Shakespeare's sonnet is about old age and I don't thnk the best match here. The most memorable part Ireland played was in the sending of Irish soldiers who did themselves, their nation and JFK proud at his funeral in Arlington

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gobdawpaddy | Nov 23, 2011, 06:51 AM EST

Niall, it was the Texas School Book Depository. Now repository has a similar meaning but supository would be VERY different.

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uc47163 | Nov 22, 2011, 10:45 PM EST

I was very young, in 9th grade, when we learn what had happened to our president. Today, at work, i had to remind somone, who should have remembered, that 11/22/ was a really sad day in our Camelot History

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KathyCallahan | Nov 22, 2011, 07:05 PM EST

A defining tipping point moment for a girl from Hudson Co vacationing with family in Dallas, Texas, November 16-23, 1963

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eiriamach | Nov 22, 2011, 05:32 PM EST

Why is it that no article I've ever read about the JFK assassination seems to reach a real ending? Neill O'D lets Shakespeare call an ending here. Well, OK, Shakespeare wrote some pretty powerful endings to some powerful political figures, the likes of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III, Duncan and Macbeth, Hamlet. My only sure feeling now about the JFK assassination is that we'll probably never know for sure everything we have the right to know about his death, like who assassinated him and why and why his alleged assassin was assassinated so quickly. If we'll never know, we'll never have a real ending for the story. Or maybe the problem is only that I cannot accept the official story because it is, to use O'D's word, just too "banal" an ending for such an elegant, hopeful, youthful presidency that brought together many gifted people, Irish-descended among them, to work for the country's future.

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