JACKIE KENNEDY, THEN-wife of John F Kennedy, rang the Irish Embassy in Washington DC from the White House just hours after her husband’s assassination in Texas to ask if the Defence Forces’ Cadets could play a role in his funeral.
Newly released State Papers show that officials from the Departments of the Taoiseach, Defence and External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs) were determined to ensure that the precise nature of Mrs Kennedy’s phone call be noted for posterity.
In general, State Papers – official documents from Government departments and the President’s Office – are declassified and released to the public 30 years after the fact. However, some records are released before or after that timeframe for various reasons.
JFK was assassinated as he was being driven through Dallas in an open car on 22 November 1963. In June of that year he visited Ireland to much fanfare.
Kennedy was the United States’ first Catholic president and he had strong Irish roots; his great-grandparents were born here.
Events to mark the 60th anniversary of his death took place in Ireland and the US this year.
The State records released this month reveal that one of the first calls Jackie Kennedy made when she arrived back at the White House after JFK was killed was to ensure Irish representation at his funeral.
In a letter to Aidan Mulloy of the Department of External Affairs on 29 June 1965, an Irish Embassy official in Washington queried a memo regarding how the Defence Forces’ Cadets came to be involved in the Washington funeral programme.
“We were interested in the copy of your minute… to the Department of Defence regarding the participation of the Cadets from the Military College in the funeral ceremonies of the late President Kennedy.
“In the course of a letter to the ambassador of January 14 1965, Dr T.J. Kiernan wrote that: ‘Mrs Kennedy telephoned him in the early hours asking if they (the Cadets) could be sent out for the funeral.’
“It is doubtless correct that the formal approach requesting the participation of the Cadets was made by the US Ambassador in Dublin.”
The letter continued: “The Department should, however, be aware of Mrs Kennedy’s direct telephone call to Dr Kiernan.
“If this is not already recorded on the file at headquarters… it would be well to ask Dr Kiernan for a note on the point. It is, after all, of considerable historic interest.”
‘Considerable historical interest’
Dr Thomas Joseph Kiernan was one of Ireland’s most senior diplomats at the time.
He was appointed Ambassador to the US in 1960 and served in Washington throughout President Kennedy’s term, playing a critical role in the preparation of his visit to Ireland in June 1963.
Both President Kennedy and Jackie were on friendly terms with Kiernan.
One of the newly released memos notes that Irish officials were aware the Cadets travelled to Washington at the request of Mrs Kennedy, but believed her request came via the US State Department to the US Embassy in Dublin and then to the Irish Government.
They were intrigued to find out that the First Lady personally called the Irish Embassy just hours after her husband’s killing.
The Department of External Affairs later received a request from a US military historian for information about the presidential funeral for a magazine article, prompting an official to write to Kiernan in October 1965 for clarification of the series of events.
The letter states: “While it is undoubted that the formal approach requesting the participation of the Irish Cadets in the funeral ceremonies was made by the US Ambassador in Dublin, some doubt has arisen about the nature of the telephone call from Mrs Kennedy to the Embassy at Washington in the early morning hours of November 23 1963, the day following the President’s assassination.”
“In view of the considerable historic interest which this message may arouse in the future, perhaps you would be so good as to place your recollections of the event on record?”
However, no further documentation about Mrs Kennedy’s phone call is included in the file released this month.
Lee Harvey Oswald, a US marine veteran who defected to the Soviet Union, was charged with killing JFK. He himself was shot dead at Dallas Police Headquarters just two days later by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
To this day there are many conspiracy theories related to Oswald including whether or not he acted alone in the assassination.
The reference number for these State Papers is 2023/47/2281
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