One of Ourselves: John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Ireland

Rating:
Summary: A different JFK
Review: I thought I had enough JFK books - the clan, the crises, the concubines. I used to read them all; now I find myself skipping through the pages of new books, over the same familiar stories. Even a good historian like Robert Dallek can only make news by turning up more tales of girls & pills. It starts to feel like aversion therapy. Please, I don't want to read any more!
Please!
I wanted to read this book, though - maybe for the same reason JFK wanted to go to Ireland. The trip was a sidelight. His advisors thought it a waste of time - he already had all the Irish votes! And Ireland was hardly a front line in the Cold War - he'd just been to Berlin and was about to face up to 'regime change' in Vietnam. But he wanted to go & he went - it's good to be the president. And his reason for going - like the trip itself - shows a side of him that's much less familiar than what we usually see. I have assorted ideas of what Kennedy was like (I'm a few years too young to remember him - if your first presidential bonding was with Lyndon Johnson - Vietnam, not civil rights, vintage - you can understand the interest in JFK) - but emotion - the tenderer emotions - isn't the first to mind.
That's what this book so wonderfully celebrates - Kennedy's 4-day sentimental journey to Ireland. It wasn't a typical homecoming - not with helicopters, motorcades, speeches, public ceremonies. The whole country seemed to turn out to meet him - you get a very vivid sense here of the excitement - & pride - that Kennedy stirred in the Irish - & that they roused in him. The book covers all that beautifully, it makes you both part of Kennedy's travel party - & one of the Irish crowd, with fresh interviews of those who were there - family, reporters, Irish whose brush with JFK is a dearest memory. But what I liked best - & found most moving - were the little, more private moments. In the house of distant cousins, Kennedy sat down, sipped tea in front of a turf fire, looked around him & saw "Kennedy faces." And in a crowd of thousands, JFK found an old man who reminded him of his grandfather - "And his name is Fitzgerald!" Kennedy didn't like singing in public - for the same reason he didn't wear funny hats - but in Ireland he sang - offkey but with feeling.
And the feeling from 'the 3 happiest days I've ever spent in my life' lasted. Back home he couldn't stop talking about it. He watched the films over & over.
So it was reading 'One of Ourselves'. The feeling of the trip comes through & stays. This is the first Kennedy book in a long time that I've really wanted to dwell on.
(I'm not Irish but I love Irish music & poetry. The book's loaded with wonderful songs & verse -
Thus returned from travels long,
Years of exile, years of pain,
To see old Shannon's face again,
O'er the waters dancing.

Rating:
Summary: A different JFK
Review: I thought I had enough JFK books - the clan, the crises, the concubines. I used to read them all; now I find myself skipping through the pages of new books, over the same familiar stories. Even a good historian like Robert Dallek can only make news by turning up more tales of girls & pills. It starts to feel like aversion therapy. Please, I don't want to read any more!
Please!
I wanted to read this book, though - maybe for the same reason JFK wanted to go to Ireland. The trip was a sidelight. His advisors thought it a waste of time - he already had all the Irish votes! And Ireland was hardly a front line in the Cold War - he'd just been to Berlin and was about to face up to 'regime change' in Vietnam. But he wanted to go & he went - it's good to be the president. And his reason for going - like the trip itself - shows a side of him that's much less familiar than what we usually see. I have assorted ideas of what Kennedy was like (I'm a few years too young to remember him - if your first presidential bonding was with Lyndon Johnson - Vietnam, not civil rights, vintage - you can understand the interest in JFK) - but emotion - the tenderer emotions - isn't the first to mind.
That's what this book so wonderfully celebrates - Kennedy's 4-day sentimental journey to Ireland. It wasn't a typical homecoming - not with helicopters, motorcades, speeches, public ceremonies. The whole country seemed to turn out to meet him - you get a very vivid sense here of the excitement - & pride - that Kennedy stirred in the Irish - & that they roused in him. The book covers all that beautifully, it makes you both part of Kennedy's travel party - & one of the Irish crowd, with fresh interviews of those who were there - family, reporters, Irish whose brush with JFK is a dearest memory. But what I liked best - & found most moving - were the little, more private moments. In the house of distant cousins, Kennedy sat down, sipped tea in front of a turf fire, looked around him & saw "Kennedy faces." And in a crowd of thousands, JFK found an old man who reminded him of his grandfather - "And his name is Fitzgerald!" Kennedy didn't like singing in public - for the same reason he didn't wear funny hats - but in Ireland he sang - offkey but with feeling.
And the feeling from 'the 3 happiest days I've ever spent in my life' lasted. Back home he couldn't stop talking about it. He watched the films over & over.
So it was reading 'One of Ourselves'. The feeling of the trip comes through & stays. This is the first Kennedy book in a long time that I've really wanted to dwell on.
(I'm not Irish but I love Irish music & poetry. The book's loaded with wonderful songs & verse -
Thus returned from travels long,
Years of exile, years of pain,
To see old Shannon's face again,
O'er the waters dancing.

Rating:
Summary: A revealing celebration of his world
Review: One Of Ourselves by James Robert Carroll isn't your usual historical/biographical focus on John F. Kennedy's assassination, but rather a finely crafted survey recalling JFK's happier times. Any fan of Presidently Kennedy will find year-round enjoyment in this superbly presented treatise which surveys his Irish roots, his meaning to Irish-Americans, and his visit to Ireland in 1963. A revealing celebration of his world, lovingly portrayed, One Of Ourselves is a welcome addition to personal and community library American History collections.

Rating:
Summary: With 44 black-and-white photographs and prints
Review: One Of Ourselves: John Fitzgerald Kennedy In Ireland by professional journalist James Robert Carroll is an informed and informative study of American President Kennedy's three and one-half day visit to Ireland in June of 1963. 44 black-and-white photographs and prints nicely illustrate the president's "homecoming" and its meaning at the time to both Americans and Irish alike. Meticulous attention to detail enhances a superbly written text in bringing to life this particular and unique intersection of human heritage and national office. No personal, academic, or community library Kennedy Studies collection can be considered complete without the inclusion of James Robert Carroll's One Of Ourselves!