Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, has today launched the JFK Homecoming Memory Project. This project is a social media campaign and website which celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the visit of President John F. Kennedy to Ireland in June 1963.
This online campaign will complement a major exhibition which will open in June at the National Library of Ireland in partnership with the US Embassy, the JFK Presidential Library, the National Archives, RTE and supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
With the launch today of the website
www.jfkhomecoming.com everyone is invited to upload their own memories and mementoes of the visit. Members of the public can now access a comprehensive website with detailed information about the visit, plus a video tribute to the anniversary which has a number of familiar faces in Irish society participating, including Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Sharon Corr, Jamie Heaslip, Roddy Doyle, Robert Sheehan, Jim Sheridan, Laura Whitmore, Moya Doherty, and Mark Pollock.
Minister Deenihan commented:
"It is highly fitting that we now mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the visit of President John F. Kennedy to Ireland. President Kennedy had a close personal connection to Ireland, his visit had an extraordinary impact on Ireland, and many people here felt a strong affinity with and warmth for President Kennedy.
"Kennedy himself referred to Ireland as "not the land of my birth, but it is the land for which I hold the most affection."
"This website and social media campaign allows people to share their experiences from this historic time and to relive the historic visit from 1963. I hope people will submit their memories to this site and contribute to as comprehensive a digital historical document as possible for future preservation and as a live and vibrant online component that will form part of a later multimedia exhibition "JFK: Homecoming" in June this year."
All are invited to upload memories of the visit to Ireland by President Kennedy on
www.jfkhomecoming.com