From Whence I Came: The Kennedy Legacy, Ireland and America

Description

Elected in 1960 as the 35th President of the USA, John Fitzgerald Kennedy remains to this day the office’s youngest incumbent and he was its first Roman Catholic. His term in office was short, but arguably no US President has inspired more people around the globe than JFK. Even today, for generations born decades after his death, President Kennedy’s legacy has an enduring appeal.

This insightful book contains specially commissioned pieces by a range of respected academic and political figures, including former Obama speechwriter, Cody Kennan, the President of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organisation, Kerry Kennedy, and former senior adviser to Bernie Sanders, Tad Devine.

With the presidency of Joe Biden seeing a renewed focus on broader themes within Irish, American and global politics, From Whence I Came is a fascinating and timely collection that offers a fresh perspective on the Kennedy legacy and the politics of Ireland and the United States.

Contents
Introduction – Brian Murphy & Donnacha Ó Beacháin

1. Kennedy’s Great Grandmother – Celestine Murphy
2. A harmless reassurance: Joseph Kennedy, FDR & the 1938 Anglo-Irish Agreements – Michael Kennedy
3. Electing Kennedy – Donnacha Ó Beacháin
4. ‘Go talk to Senator Russell’: John F. Kennedy and Richard B. Russell, Jr. – Howard Keeley
5. Screening Kennedy in Ireland – Harvey O’Brien
6. From Shannon to Dallas: The final twenty-one weeks of JFK’s Presidency – Brian Murphy
7. Judging Kennedy – Felix M. Larkin
8. John F. Kennedy’s Presidency and the Irish- US relationship – Mary Daly
9. The Legacy of a Thousand Days – Robert Schmuhl
10. Busing in Boston and Senator Edward Kennedy – Larry Donnelly
11. Ted Kennedy: Distant Peacemaker – Alison Meagher
12. Sharing the Passion and Action of Our Times – Robert Shrum
13. The Download: Writing Speeches with Barack Obama – Cody Keenan
14. The Bernie Sanders Campaign Story – Tad Devine
15. Peace, justice and compassion towards those who’ve suffered – Kerry Kennedy

ABOUT THE EDITORS
Brian Murphy lectures at the Technological University Dublin.  He holds a PhD in Modern Irish History from University College Dublin and is the author of Forgotten Patriot: Douglas Hyde and the Foundation of the Irish Presidency and Brian Lenihan: In Calm and Crisis (co-editor). He was Co-Director of the Kennedy Summer School from 2016-2018.
Donnacha Ó Beacháin is Professor of Politics at Dublin City University. His books include Destiny of the Soldiers: Fianna Fáil, Irish Republicanism and the IRA 1926-1973, Political Communication in Ireland (co-editor) and From Partition to Brexit: The Irish Government and Northern Ireland (2018).

ISBN
9781788551410

All editor royalties from this book are being donated to the New Ross Community Hospital, a registered Irish charity run by a voluntary board of directors.  

Praise for From Whence I Came: The Kennedy Legacy, Ireland and America

‘[An] insightful selection of writings of high quality and calibre … Tales of Irish and American history, the Kennedys, and many other interwoven episodes of life in the United States told by experts in the field and by people concerned with the Kennedy legacy are contained within these timely, absorbing pages.’
Mary O’Rourke, Irish Independent