The Irish cadets who performed at JFK's graveside

PRESIDENT John F Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago today. The day after the assassination, an invitation was sent to the 37th Cadet Class of the Irish Defence Forces by Kennedy’s widow, Jackie, to perform a drill at his funeral in Washington.

Within 48 hours, 26 Irish cadets stood a few metres from Kennedy’s grave, performing the drill, which had so enchanted him five months earlier at a wreath-laying ceremony at Arbour Hill cemetery during his famous Irish state visit.

The Queen Anne Drill, known as the Funeral Drill, takes about three minutes to execute. It was carried out for dead soldiers going back to the Confederate wars in the 1640s, but it would have been new to Americans, says James Sreenan, former Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces, and one of the cadets who performed the graveside drill in Washington.