Lough Gur visit ‘a moving experience’ for Jean Kennedy Smith

THE sad news of the death of Jean Kennedy Smith has evoked fond memories of a special visit she paid to County Limerick in 1994.

In July 1993 after she was appointed the United States Ambassador to Ireland, the late local historian Michael Quinlan issued an invite to Ms Kennedy Smith to visit Lough Gur.

Fifteen months later, the sister of the 35th president of the United States arrived on County Limerick soil to see the homeplace of their great-grandfather Thomas Fitzgerald. 

“Jean Kennedy Smith’s visit in 1994 was a wonderful occasion and the achievement of a life-long goal of the late Michael Quinlan to bring a Kennedy back to their ancestral roots in Lough Gur,”  Tom Tierney, former chairman of Lough Gur Development told the Leader this week.

“It was a wonderful occasion which then resulted in a number of us attending the US Ambassador residence in Dublin for Thanksgiving that November where we sang the songs associated with JFK’s grandfather John Francis Fitzgerald aka “Honey Fitz” to the delight of the ambassador,” Tom continued.

Thomas Fitzgerald emigrated to the US from Bruff in 1852, carrying with him the family Bible. That very Bible was used by JFK when taking his oath of office in 1961. Thomas Fitzgerad married Rosanna Cox and they had 12 children. One of them John Francis (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald went on to become Mayor of Boston.

His eldest daughter Rose, married Joseph P Kennedy, they had nine children including John F Kennedy, and Jean Kennedy.

While the weather was damp on Wednesday, October 26, 1996 spirits were high in Lough Gur when Ms Kennedy Smith arrived with her sister Pat Lawford.

During her visit Ms Kennedy Smith named the newly-refurbished £50,000 theatre in Lough Gur, The Honey Fitz Theatre in honour of her grandfather Honey Fitz who got his nickname due to his sweet sounding singing voice.

A story by journalist Tony Purcell which featured in the Cork Examiner the following day said Ms Kennedy Smith described the visit as “a moving experience” and one of the highlights of her ambassadorship. 

On the first week of November in 1994, a letter arrived in the letter box at Michael Quinlan’s home embossed with the crest of the Embassy of the United States of America.

The letter from Ms Kennedy Smith was to thank Michael and the people of Lough Gur for “the hospitality you extended to me when I visited your community” and to invite Michael and his wife Anne to join her at her home to celebrate Thanksgiving. 

Ms Kennedy Smith was the last surviving sibling of the Kennedy family. She died at her Manhattan on Wednesday, June 17 at the age of 92.