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18 Jan 2026
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18 Jan 2026
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John F. Kennedy
THE 60th anniversary of the visit by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to Limerick, and the notable role played by the then Mayor of Limerick, Frances Condell, will be recalled at the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Autumn School which takes place on the October Bank Holiday weekend.
The event will take place in Bruff and nearby Lough Gur from October 27-29.
President Kennedy was greeted by thousands of people when he held a rally at Greenpark Racecourse on June 29, 1963 and the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Autumn School will reopen to commemorate the historical visit.
The school will be officially opened on Friday evening, October 27 by the Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Gerard Mitchell, in the Thomas Fitzgerald Centre, Bruff.
The Director of the School, Declan Hehir, said that as well as celebrating the rich ancestral links to the Fitzgerald Kennedy family, the school is also about exploring and celebrating “the history and culture of Bruff and Limerick, down the years, since the post-Famine exodus to the present day”.
On Saturday, October 28, two historians from the Limerick City Museum – Dr Matthew Potter and Dr William O’Neill – will lead a discussion about that famous visit by President Kennedy, and explore the role of the 1963 Limerick Mayor, Frances Condell, on that famous occasion.
This session, and the first of two Sunday sessions, will be held in the nearby Lough Gur Visitor Centre.
The second session on Sunday, October 29 in the Thomas Fitzgerald Centre in Bruff, will feature three contributors, including journalist and Bruff native, Maureen Browne, who will explore the “what-ifs” relating to President Kennedy: “If Thomas Fitzgerald, Mary Fitzgerald and Michael Hannon hadn’t emigrated from Bruff to Boston in the 1850s”.
Three of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s eight great-grandparents hailed from the Bruff area of Limerick and settled in Boston.
Two of the three were Fitzgeralds – Thomas and Mary Anne, who were first cousins. Mary Anne married another emigrant Michael Hannon, from Lough Gur.
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