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On May 29, 1968, Ireland's President de Valera and Eunice Shriver Opened the John F. Kennedy Memorial Park and Arboretum in County Wexford

 

Treescape at the JFK Arboretum in Wexford, Ireland 

On May 29, 1968, Ireland's President Eamon de Valera officially opened the 460 acre John F. Kennedy Park and Arboretum in County Wexford, not far from the Kennedy family's ancestral home in the village of Dunganstown in New Ross.  The ceremony took place on what would have been JFK's 51st birthday.

Joining President de Valera were President Kennedy's sister Eunice Shriver and her daughter Mat, and Joan Kennedy, wife of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.  Among the 500 invited guests at the opening were Kennedy relatives the Ryans of New Ross, as well as Ireland's Prime Minister Jack Lynch.  

From the United States, Irish-American officials included Sean Keating, representing the Irish American Societies,  John O'Connor, president of the Irish Institute in New York and Michael Flannery, former president of the New York Gaelic Athletic Association and a director of the Irish Institute Irish Hillside JFK Ceremony, according to Associated Press (AP).

The $480,000 park was a gift from the United Irish Societies of New York and the Irish government, and included an arboretum, a forest park, and an educational and research center, to be run by Ireland's Department of Agriculture. 



Eunice Shriver plants a silver birch tree at the official opening.  

As part of the ceremonies, Mrs. Shriver planted a silver birch tree, and then turned on a fountain made of Irish granite, where an inscription of President Kennedy's famous words were etched, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Owen V. Mooney, writing in The Capuchin Annual 1974, recalled that it was an emotional day for the Kennedy family and for the people of Wexford. 

Mrs. Shriver said at the dedication, "All of his life, (my brother) planted ideas, as trees will be planted and grown here in the future. He was a man of the future and not of the past, though the great struggles for freedom in the past he respected."  

Mooney added at the end of his story, "Had he himself the opportunity to choose, President Kennedy could hardly have had a finer or more satisfying memorial in Ireland."

Since 2013, the John F. Kennedy Arboretum has been managed by the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland, and contains more than 4,500 trees from around the world. 

In Massachusetts, learn more about President Kennedy and his family by visiting the JFK Presidential Library in Boston, the JFK Museum in Hyannis, Cape Cod, and the JFK Birthplace in Brookline. 

Here is a full list of Kennedy landmarks in Massachusetts, compiled by Boston Irish Tourism Association. Learn more about Irish history in Boston by visiting the Irish Heritage Trail. 

For information about visiting Ireland, go to Ireland.com. 

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