With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

JFK Saw Irish Language Revival as ‘A Waste of National Efforts’

John F Kennedy may have been welcomed in Irish when he landed at Dublin Airport in 1963, but the US president thought Éamon de Valera’s efforts to revive the language were “a waste of national effort”.

Kennedy later changed his view and was regularly heard chatting “as Gaeilge” to an Irish nanny employed by the family of his brother, Ted.

Dr Brian Murphy, a lecturer at Technological University Dublin, said Kennedy expressed his disapproval of the language revival effort during discussions with Seán Lemass, then taoiseach, in Ireland in 1963.

Murphy, who is joint author of a new book on the Kennedy legacy, published these latest findings on the Tuairisc.ie Irish language website.

Read entire article at Times (UK)