Introducing a future leader

The first person to introduce John Fitzgerald Kennedy in public as “the next President of the United States” was from Kanturk, Co Cork.

It happened on a January night in 1957, three years before Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon to become America’s 35th president.

Kennedy was the guest speaker at the annual dinner of the Irish Institute in New York and Sean P Keating, a leading figure in Irish-American life of the city, did the introductions.