JFK'S MESSAGE ON ST. PATTY'S DAY
"The observance of St. Patrick's Day is almost as old in America as the Irish themselves, & some say they arrived in the 6th century.
It is a day of dedication....as purely American as it is Irish...recalling for all that ours is a nation founded, sustained &...preserved in the cause of liberty. None more than the Irish can attest the power of that cause once it has gripped a nation's soul.
It is well to love liberty, for it demands much of those who would live by it. Liberty is not content to share mankind. John Boyle O'Reilly*, who came to Boston by way of a penal colony in Western Australia, understood this as few men have. 'Freedom,' he wrote, 'is more than a resolution--he is not free who is free alone.'
To those who in our time have lost their freedom, or who through the ages have never won it, there is a converse to this message. No one--in the darkest cell, the remotest prison, under the most unyielding tyranny--is ever entirely lost in bondage while there are yet free men in the world.
As this be our faith, let it also be our pride--and to all who share it, I send the greetings of this day."
John F. Kennedy
President of the United States
March 17, 1962
*John Boyle O'Reilly (1844-1890) was born in Dowth, Ireland & became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. JBO escaped from Western Australia & made it to Boston where he became a journalist, poet & writer. His best known poem is"The Cry of the Dreamer."
JFK Receives Shamrock Bowl
March 17, 1961
JFK Library Photo
