Irish Culture, Documentary, History, Entertainment Fr. Gerry Smith The Columban Fathers 1963 28 mins English

This documentary film produced by the Columban Fathers chronicles President John F. Kennedy’s historic visit to Ireland in June 1963, only 5 months before his tragic assassination.

The producer, Father Gerry Smith, a Cavan-born missionary priest, had studied filmmaking in the U.S. He had made a number of films about ‘the old country’ before making this documentary which was intended to be shown at fundraising events for Irish-American audiences.

Kennedy was the first American president to visit an independent Ireland, and his visit was seen as both an endorsement of Ireland’s success and a national celebration of homecoming due to his Irish ancestry. There were several films made of the Kennedy visit, but his was the only professionally-made film shot in colour. It shows the visit to his ancestral home in Dunganstown in Co Wexford; sequences from his visits, attended by enormous crowds, in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick; and a series of excerpts from his many public speeches.

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