ALL I can recall about Friday, November 22, 1963, is that I was six and a half and that we were visiting cousins in Kilworth that night.
I’m not certain if we had a television or not that time. I can recall Murphy Agus A Chairde and Tolka Row on the black and white telly but it might have been in other houses and not ours.
Josie Linehan, of Ballyhooley, was a first cousin of my late father - both of their mothers were Barrys. Mam kept up the link with all of dada’s relations, even after he died in 1961.
Josie had married Atty Coughlan, from Mitchelstown side, and they farmed at Knocknohill in Kilworth.
We used often visit the Coughlans, the Barrys, the Sheehans, and the Cotters - all cousins. Amazing what you’d remember as a six-year-old -and what you’d forget!
Well, on that Friday night I remember we looked at the grainy TV pictures from Dallas, Texas, in Coughlan’s kitchen. Atty, Josie, son Billy and daughter Margaret, Mam, Auntie Jo and a couple of us young Arnolds were there.
Coughlan’s was a great house for children to visit - lemonade, cake, sweets and biscuits seemed to be piled high everywhere. I’d say we were more interested in the ‘treats’ than the unfolding tragic news from across the world, but we knew from the solemn silence of the ‘big people’ that something awful had happened.
Afterwards, Jackie Kennedy said it was ‘the day Camelot died’. It seemed like the great American dream was in shatters.
While John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the fourth American president to be assassinated, the last time such an awful event had occurred was way back in 1901 when President William McKinley died from gangrenous wounds eight days after being shot.
JFK’s killing was such a tragedy. Of course, we’ll never know if the first ever ‘Irish’ Catholic President of the United States would have fulfilled all the expectation that had been placed on his broad shoulders. Indeed, in the six decades since his death, as many books have been written about his potential as have been penned about his legacy.
What made it so doubly poignant and sad for the Irish nation was that it was only a few months earlier that he’d made his historic and joyous visit to Ireland.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a superb orator and knew how to engage with his audience. In Cork the Lord Mayor, former GAA President, Sean McCarthy welcomed JFK and said he was an honoured guest. “We honour all those who crossed the Atlantic from this tiny island and made their new homes in the United States,” said McCarthy.
In reply, the President mentioned that so many countries export “oil or iron, steel or gold or some other crop but Ireland has had only one export - its people”.
In many ways, Kennedy was like Michael Collins - charismatic, handsome, and with a fantastic vision. Both wrote and they were strong advocates of democracy.
Personally, I feel the Kennedy story gave great hope to so many emigrants from all over the world who settled in the ‘land of the brave and the home of the free’. To reach the Office of U.S President was surely the top of the ladder from a political and personal point of view.
Coming from humble ancestral roots in Wexford, he showed that anything is possible, regardless of race, creed or class - one of his successors in the White House, Barack Obama, demonstrated that same true grit.
Patrick Kennedy was born in 1823 in Dunganstown in County Wexford. A year earlier, Edward Arnold was born in the village of Rathcormac, and three years after that William Ford was born in Ballinascarthy in West Cork.
All three were born into humble circumstances and all of them left their native land to try and better themselves and make a new life.
Leaving Ireland in the 1830s and 1840s was truly a ‘one way journey’ to the New World. Some did return but the vast majority never again saw the ports of New Ross or Cobh.
As a young man in his early twenties, Edward Arnold departed from the banks of the Bride and ended up in Holyoke, Massachusetts. At the age of 22, he married Jane O’Hara. In 1857, Edward, Jane and their four children headed West. He arrived initially in Sioux City and later moved to Ponca in Dixon County, Nebraska, where he died in 1894.
Edward was a Democrat and valued education highly. He studied extensively and on being appointed a Judge for the District was widely respected as an erudite, wise and extremely fair dispenser of justice.
There are now no Arnolds living in Rathcormac, but Judge Edward Arnold’s ancestors lie in the family graves in the old cemetery.
In West Cork last week, I passed through the village of Ballinascarthy and marvelled at the beautiful Model T replica car which honours and commemorates the Ford family connection with the area.
In 1861, William Ford married Mary Litogot Ahern, from Fair Lane in Cork city. The couple had eight children, the second of whom was Henry, who went on to literally revolutionise the automobile industry. In a few short decades the name Ford became synonymous with motor cars and agricultural tractors.
The Ford family didn’t forget their Leeside roots. In 1917, work began in Cork on the first custom-built Ford factory outside of the United States. The factory went into production in 1919. Fords remained an integral part of Cork industry until the factory was closed in 1984.
I often wondered did Patrick Kennedy, Edward Arnold and William Ford ever met each other? I suppose not. They were three Irishmen who, like thousands of their countrymen and women, left home to seek a new life.
They probably all had an ‘Irish wake’ at home a few nights before they left their native places. A ‘wake’ is held to bid farewell to someone who has died - these were young, strong and healthy men with no thoughts of dying.
For family members staying at home, however, they knew in their hearts and souls that the chance of ever again meeting the emigrant was slim. That was the way it was for hundreds of thousands of our ancestors. So many went to America - of course, for many life in the New World was maybe as tough as at home - ‘No Irish need Apply’ was often what they saw on shop windows.
Thankfully many, many of them did well and their descendants in the USA and relations at home can be so proud of the contribution they made in making America great. The few dollars home to Ireland were welcome too in keeping ‘the wolf from the door’.
Today, 60 years after his untimely death we think of JFK and all the others who were so proud of their Irish heritage.
The word ‘diaspora’ is now widely used to describe the people of one country scattered across the face of the world. Patrick Kennedy, Edward Arnold and William Ford were amongst those who went - their legacy still lives on.
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