EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, June — September 2023
2023 marked the sixtieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s visit to Ireland, the first by a serving US president. A descendant of Irish Famine emigrants, JFK was welcomed by large crowds in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Wexford, where his itinerary included a visit to the ancestral family homestead in Dunganstown.
The country to which he returned was very different to the one left by his forebears. By 1963, Ireland had entered a new era of optimism, with falling unemployment and rising standards of living. The Irish economy still lagged behind many others in Europe, but more and more young people were now staying at home.
Kennedy’s visit brought international attention to the progress made by the independent Irish state, but it also served as a celebration of Irish diaspora success. The first Catholic to be elected to the White House, he was a powerful emblem of Irish America’s rise from tenement poverty to middle-class respectability.
What did the occasion mean to Irish politicians, diplomats and onlookers? What purpose did it serve at a time of national transition? And what did international observers make of what they saw?
Homecoming, a collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, explored the cultural and political significance of this momentous four-day trip, drawing on original documents, photography and oral history interviews.
Exhibition launch video, featuring remarks by Maura Healey, governor of Massachusetts; Claire Cronin, the then US ambassador to Ireland; Stephen Kennedy Smith, son of Jean Kennedy Smith; and Rachel Flor, executive director of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.
Curated by Catherine Healy. Graphic design by Joanne Byrne.
Catherine Healy 