Carrying On The Story: Guest Blog: JFK Homestead

This is a post which Elizabeth and Meghann wrote for our academic blog about our trip to Wexford to see the JFK Homestead. This blog contains the adventures of Brad, Meghann, Elizabeth, and Eva.

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After visiting the authentic replica of what the famine ships would have looked like, we went to visit the JFK Homestead. John was not the only influential Kennedy, in fact, most of the family became a great influential power. To understand John’s ambition, we have to look at those who inspired it. The first Kennedy to start it all was John ‘Honey’ Kennedy, John’s grandfather. Honey was said to be one of the sweetest men anyone had met, thus his nickname "honey." He started a bank and took care of problems in city hall those before him had ignored. He wanted what was best for the people, doing whatever he could to help the people. His daughter described him as the greatest man she had ever known, wherever he was, there was magic in the air. His son would soon follow in his footsteps; he paved the way for the Kennedy’s to come and have an influence in Boston society.

Joe wanted to become a successful businessman, but he was an Irish Catholic who was separated from the old Boston families. Rather than deterring him, it made him try even harder to prove his worth and aspire to become equal with the higher up businessmen. By the age of twenty-five, he was the president of the bank his father had founded, the youngest in America. His wealth continued to grow, and later he became the chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission when the stock market crashed. In 1918 he became the American Ambassador to Britain where he met the Mayor’s daughter Rose and made her his wife.

John F Kennedy was one of Joe and Rose’s nine kids. His grandfather and father had already paved the way for John, his family had become well known and was highly liked. John takes after his father. He had the same ambition and desire to change the world. John F. Kennedy never did anything small. It was go big or go home for him. He handled the Cuban Missile Crisis with ease, one of the most dangerous events in world history. He started the space program that would one day put a man on the moon just as he predicted. John was a wonderful President. We could go on and on about his achievements. It is a tragedy that his campaign came to such an abrupt end. Who knows what else he would have accomplished to help further better the world.

John F Kennedy's family came over to America on the Dunbrody Famine ship, and his cousins still live on a dairy farm near New Ross Co. Wexford. When John F Kennedy found this out, he went to visit them, and the site as since become a tourist attraction.

The stables

The Cow House

What is left of the old house

The inside of the stables has been arranged to look like the inside of the house where John F Kennedy would have visited his family. People cannot go into the real house, obviously, because his family still lives there.