Eighteen years later he would come to Ireland as President of the United States, but when John F. Kennedy visited in 1945 he was an unknown journalist covering a story on Irish partition, writes Maolsheachlann Ó Ceallaigh.

On the twenty-fifth of July 1945, an intriguing photograph appeared on page three of the Irish Press newspaper. It may not have been intriguing to readers at the time, but it’s certainly intriguing to us today.

The photograph showed a handsome, clean-cut young man with a toothy smile and a rather tousled head of hair. The caption read: “Mr. John F. Kennedy, son of the late Mr. Joseph P. Kennedy, who was U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain in 1938-40, photographed in Dublin last night on his first visit to Ireland. Mr. Kennedy, who retired from the U.S. Navy owing to injuries received in the Pacific, is writing a series of articles for an American newspaper syndicate.”

World War II had ended just a month before, and the war had resulted in a severe paper shortage. The Irish Press of that day contained only four pages and six photographs. And yet, surprisingly, the editor found space to include this photograph of a young reporter from America. (The caption erred in one regard; Joseph Kennedy, John’s father, lived until 1969.)

One cannot help wondering what Irish readers made of this minor news item, at breakfast tables and in train carriages all over the country. None of them could have known that, within fifteen years, John F. Kennedy would be elected the youngest ever President of the United States. Nor could they have foreseen that he would return to Ireland on a state visit three years into his Presidency, an occasion that gripped the nation and still lives in folk memory.

Least of all could they have imagined that he would be assassinated only five months after visiting his ancestral land, a tragedy that still fuels feverish speculation more than six decades later.

And yet, it isn’t entirely surprising that John F. Kennedy’s photograph appeared in the Irish Press that day. He may have been unknown in Ireland, but “Jack” (as he was known) was already a celebrity at home. Not only had his father served as US ambassador to Britain, but he was one of the richest men in America.

Jack himself already had more than one claim to fame. His Harvard thesis, published under the title Why England Slept, had been a surprise bestseller, winning acclaim for its insightful analysis of Britain’s failure to prepare for the Second World War.

Jack the writer was quickly followed by Jack the war hero. Serving in the US Navy during the war in the Pacific, he conducted himself heroically when his boat was cut in half by a Japanese destroyer. The story was covered in Life and Reader’s Digest, and Jack was awarded the coveted Purple Heart medal.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own