How long is eternity? In Ireland, less than a week.

An Irish eternal flame honouring John F Kennedy petered out four days after the assassinated US president's closest relatives and Ireland's prime minister lit it near the Kennedys' ancestral home.

The flame had been taken from the original JFK Eternal Flame on his burial plot in Arlington cemetery – the first time this has been permitted by the Kennedy family.

An Irish honour guard ferried the flame in an Olympics-style lantern across the Atlantic by aircraft, then by Irish naval vessel to the riverside town of New Ross for last Saturday's ceremony.

The gas-fed flame was supposed to burn indefinitely inside a specially constructed globe sculpture. New Ross council said it went out Wednesday night, but was relit within minutes.