In footsteps of JFK in New Ross

THE past is a foreign country.

Reading the accounts of President Kennedy’s visit to Ireland in 1963, that’s the phrase that keeps coming to mind. You can’t help but be struck by the innocence of it all, the cups of tea, the open-topped cars, the kisses, and the wistful promise to “see Old Shannon’s face again”.

“Oh my God, did he make an impression,” says Jim Doyle, a local history enthusiast who took me on a tour of New Ross recently. “The helicopter arrived in the GAA Park over in Wexford and their shoes were all dirty after running through the turnip fields. I never saw a man so bronzed in all my life.”