Читать книгу JFK in Ireland: Four Days that Changed a President - Ryan Tubridy - Страница 10

On 8 July 1938, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy flew back to the country his grandparents had left less than a century earlier. “My visit is not merely a sentimental one,” he told waiting reporters, but he couldn’t tell them the real reason for it: he’d been invited to receive an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland, which would be presented by Éamon de Valera, then Chancellor, but university rules forbade recipients of honorary degrees from disclosing the honour until the actual conferral. This was an honour that appealed to Joe Kennedy, as he had been snubbed recently for an honorary doctorate by Harvard University, his own Alma Mater.

The day was a wet one. In Dublin city, cinema–goers were flocking to the Metropole to see Robert Donat in The Count of Monte Cristo when the fourteen–seat de Havilland 86 touched down. Newspaper reports suggested that the Ambassador would be accompanied by his son John and his wife Mrs Rose Kennedy, and the day before the visit, The Irish Press published a front–page photo of Ambassador Kennedy flanked by Joe and John with the headline “US Ambassador Here Tomorrow” but that is the last suggestion of JFK’s involvement, and photographs taken during the visit show only Joe Sr and his eldest son.¹⁰ The Ambassador was accompanied by his long–time secretary, Edward Moore (after whom Ted Kennedy was named), Joe Jr and an embassy aide with the outrageously coincidental name of John Kennedy. It is probably here that the confusion arose about his son John’s inclusion on the trip, but Joe Jr was the son being groomed for political greatness, not John. He is the one that Joe Sr would have been keen to introduce to the great and the good of Dublin.

Joseph P. Kennedy, US Ambassador to Britain, is greeted by his sons Jack (left) and Joseph on his return to London after a visit to New York. Two days later, he flew into Dublin’s Baldonnel airport.

The Ambassador’s visit was given all the attention of a major occasion, just shy of an official state visit, and achieved front–page news for his two days in Ireland. With the real reason for the trip undisclosed, there was much speculation in the Irish media that Joe Kennedy was in town to discuss Anglo–Irish relationships, and the thorny issue of Partition in particular.¹¹

The division of the island of Ireland had its origins in the British Government of Ireland Act of 1920 that had introduced separate parliaments in both north and south, based in Dublin and Belfast. With the end of the Anglo–Irish War and the Treaty of 1921 this arbitrary separation began to solidify into a more or less permanent divide, which provoked bitter splits in the newly founded Irish Free State and led directly to the Civil War of 1922–23. A Boundary Commission set up to decide the final border largely followed the original line of 1920 and, in 1925, both the British Parliament and the Dáil ratified the final borders. The Partition of north and south was anathema to some and would remain a live political issue throughout the 20th century and beyond.

De Valera was behind one of the main groups campaigning against Partition and for the island of Ireland to be unified once more, but those who thought Joe Kennedy Sr would speak out on behalf of their cause would be sadly disappointed. Britain was on the brink of war and Kennedy was already in a tense diplomatic situation as the British government invoked their so–called “Special Relationship” with the US and sought American help to stop Hitler from dominating Europe. Kennedy was known to be an isolationist, but at the same time he couldn’t risk upsetting his British hosts because losing their goodwill would make his position as Ambassador untenable. Speaking out about Partition at that time would have been a very bad idea, and that’s why he was careful to describe his trip to the press at least in part as “sentimental”; not political – sentimental; a way of reconnecting with his roots.

In a private meeting at the Department of External Affairs, he said he didn’t want to discuss the progress of negotiations between the British and the Irish but he passed on President Roosevelt’s views that it was important for Anglo–American relations that a settlement was reached. Even this is considered so sensitive that the document was marked “secret”.

The mercurial Kennedy patriarch kept to a busy and full schedule while in Dublin. From the airport, he was driven to the American Legation, which would later become the American Embassy in Ireland. Over lunch he caught up with John Cuclahy, the United States Minister in Ireland (effectively, Ambassador). The two were old friends and the meeting served as a useful scene–setter for the esteemed guest. From there it was off to the main business at hand, the conferral at the university’s offices in Dublin’s Merrion Square.

On arrival at the National University headquarters, Ambassador Kennedy was met by Éamon de Valera, who was dressed in black and gold robes. The Ambassador, dressed in the scarlet and purple gown of the law faculty, was watched by, among others, Joe Jr. Afterwards, photographs showed father and son mingling with guests, of which Rose Kennedy would write twenty–four years later to de Valera: “Joe often speaks of his visit to Dublin when he was Ambassador in London, and there is a place of honour in our home reserved for your photograph with the former President of Eire [Douglas Hyde] and our eldest son, Joe, drinking tea together.”¹²

Kennedy and de Valera made their way separately across the city to the Dáil, where the latter welcomed the former in his official capacity as Taoiseach, or “Prime Minister”, then the Ambassador was driven to Áras an Uachtarain, the President’s official residence, where he met President Douglas Hyde and the President’s secretary, Michael McDunphy.

The following day, the Ambassador had an appointment with Ireland’s Papal Nuncio, which was followed by a visit to Trinity College for a look at the Book of Kells and a trip to the National Museum for a tour guided by the director, Adolf Mahr. There was a courtesy call to Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Alfie Byrne, who expressed the hope that the Ambassador’s visit would help to end Partition. The Ambassador wished happiness to the people of Ireland, Britain and America but told him firmly that he couldn’t interfere in matters such as the Irish border. He wasn’t about to break his diplomatic silence on the subject.

That night the Ambassador was guest of honour at a state banquet in Dublin Castle. A beautiful building commissioned by England’s King John in 1204, this was the physical seat of former British rule in Ireland and the target for revolutionaries like Silken Thomas (1534), Robert Emmet (1803) and the leaders of the 1916 Rising against British rule. Dublin Castle had only been handed over by the British to the Irish Free State sixteen years before the Ambassador crossed its threshold.

Sizing up America’s new man in London: a report by John W. Dulanty, Irish High Commissioner in London, following his meeting with the new US Ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy, 15 March 1938.

Joseph P. Kennedy receives his honorary doctorate from the Chancellor of the National University of Ireland, Éamon de Valera, 7 July 1938.

At the state banquet, de Valera was effusive: “We welcome you for yourself and for your race. We are proud that men like you not merely do honour for your country, but honour to our race.”¹³ These words must have meant a lot to a man coming from the East Coast of America, where his Irish nationality had always been held against him. To be told that the Taoiseach of the country of his ancestors respected his achievements must have been welcome praise indeed.

Writing to Senator Edward Kennedy in 1964, President de Valera recalled: “The impression your father made on me … was that he was brisk in thought and action, very forceful and decisive in opinion. I looked upon him as a stout American who had served his country in important offices in critical times and believed that the United States was the leading nation of the world and deserved recognition as such.”¹⁴

There was some talk about the Kennedys’ Irish heritage during the visit, with The Irish Times speculating that “if there are any relations left, they probably reside in the Clonakilty district or Wexford Field”.¹⁵ At a press conference at the American Legation in Dublin, while fielding questions from journalists, the Ambassador had trouble understanding a particularly strong Cork accent. “I am sorry, I can’t quite understand you,” he remarked. And the Corkman answered: “Well, I come from near Clonakilty, where your people came from.” The Ambassador laughed. “Yes. But I haven’t managed to keep the accent through a generation and a half.”

Before he left, Ambassador Kennedy was asked two questions that would have resonance in the future. The first, “Will you be a candidate for the Presidency of the United States in 1940?” went unanswered. When asked whether the rest of the Kennedy children would visit Ireland, the Ambassador smiled and said “by instalments”.¹⁶