{"id":533428,"date":"2026-07-04T23:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T23:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/533428\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T23:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T23:53:15","slug":"american-presidents-trail-launched-in-limerick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/533428\/","title":{"rendered":"American President’s Trail launched in Limerick"},"content":{"rendered":"

John F Kennedy took the oath of office as President of the United States in 1961 on a Bible that came from Bruff, Co Limerick.<\/p>\n

It had been brought to America by his great-grandfather, Thomas Fitzgerald, in 1952.<\/p>\n

Three of President Kennedy’s great-grandparents came from Bruff, so Limerick can rightly claim to have put the F in JFK.<\/p>\n

It was in the Fitzgerald ancestral home that The American President’s Trail was launched today, to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States.<\/p>\n

The trail tells the story of migration from across the island of Ireland and how those emigrant communities helped shape American history.<\/p>\n

It highlights the remarkable fact that nearly half of US presidents have Irish ancestry, with family connections stretching to counties including Antrim, Mayo, Offaly, Wexford, and Limerick.<\/p>\n

\"American
\nJohn F Kennedy took the oath of office as President of the United States in 1961 on a Bible that came from Bruff<\/p>\n

Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan, planted a commemorative tree in Bruff Riverside Park to launch the heritage trail.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Donovan said no other place in the world has given as many occupants to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue than the island of Ireland.<\/p>\n

He said the Government and local authorities wanted to celebrate the link in as many communities as possible.<\/p>\n

We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences<\/a><\/p>\n

The trail will celebrate the Irish migrant stories that laid paths to the White House, from Andrew Jackson in 1829 to Joe Biden in 2021.<\/p>\n

At least 17 presidents can trace their ancestral connections to Ulster, including William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Gerald Ford.<\/p>\n

Cousins of President Kennedy still live in Limerick.<\/p>\n

\"American
\nThree of President Kennedy’s great-grandparents came from Bruff<\/p>\n

Eileen Lillis McMahon is a fourth cousin of JFK.<\/p>\n

Her mother was one of the relatives to welcome President Kennedy to Limerick at Greenpark Racecourse in 1963.<\/p>\n

The president delighted the crowd by referring to his Fitzgerald ancestors from Bruff.<\/p>\n

Spotting members of the Fitzgerald family in the crowd, he said, “I want to express my pleasure at seeing the Fitzgeralds. I wonder if they could stand up? One of them looks just like Grandpa, and that is a compliment”.<\/p>\n

\"A
\nNearly half of US presidents have Irish ancestry<\/p>\n

He was referring to Jim Hogan, an uncle of Ms McMahon, who resembled John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n

Ms McMahon said President Kennedy told his brother Ted, who later came to Ireland and met Mr Hogan.<\/p>\n

A new museum is set to open in Limerick city in what was once the International Rugby Experience.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Donovan said he would like to see the Bible on which President Kennedy took the oath of office displayed in Ireland on loan from Boston.<\/p>\n

The Bible is currently part of an exhibition at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John F Kennedy took the oath of office as President of the United States in 1961 on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-533428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}