State papers: Joe Kennedy told Éamon de Valera Irish visit was happiest moment in JFK's life 

US president John F Kennedy greeting children at his ancestral home at Dunganstown, Co Wexford on June 28, 1963. His father later wrote to President Éamon de Valera expressing his gratitude for the welcome he received, especially in Co Wexford. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

The father of the late US president, John F Kennedy, told President Éamon de Valera that one of the happiest moments in his son’s life was the warm reception he received from the Irish people during a State visit to Ireland in 1963.

A former ambassador to the UK, Joe Kennedy wrote to the Irish president to express his family’s profound gratitude for the decision to name an arboretum in Wexford in honour of his son — who was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, just a few weeks after his return from Ireland.