One of Ourselves: John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Ireland [Hardcover]

James Robert Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2003 | ISBN-10: 1884592406 | ISBN-13: 978-1884592409

One of Ourselves: John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Ireland is a fascinating and faithful account of President Kennedy’s 3-1/2 day visit to Ireland in late June of 1963. Author Jim Carroll provides yet another window into the Kennedy legacy, creating a complex portrait of the man and the presidency. Exhaustively researched, the book and photos tell a memorable tale of the president’s "homecoming" to a people and land long etched in his heart and at last on the verge of taking their place in the modern world’s politics and economy. It is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour look at the places JFK visited; the people he met—political and cultural luminaries and average Irish citizens alike; the throngs who lined the roads to catch a glimpse of him or gathered to hear him speak; and the events that crowded his schedule. He touched a nation, and it touched him, in part because they shared a history of perseverance and adversity. Indeed, the trip represented the culmination of his historic triumph in the election of an Irish Catholic as president of a country where people could still remember store signs warning, "Irish Need Not Apply." His brief sojourn to Ireland revealed more of the private and spontaneous John F. Kennedy than ever before seen in public. Historian Arthur Schlesinger wrote, "I imagine that [Kennedy] was never easier, happier, more involved and detached, more complexly himself" than in the days of his Ireland visit. Told with the help and recollections of many present during the trip, including aides, family, and friends, Carroll captures just such a Kennedy in this remarkable new book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

One of Ourselves: John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Ireland is the author's second presidential book with Images from the Past (after The Real Woodrow Wilson in 2000.) Its high quality has been recognized by a review in Ireland of the Welcomes (among many), an Independent Publisher IPPY award, and inclusion in the National Press Club's 27th Annual Book Fair and Author's Night. All of us at Images from the Past are very proud!

One of Ourselves is a skillfully woven complex story about a country, an era, and an Irish-American who had become president of the United States, but had not forgotten his roots. "I want to go to Ireland", he reiterated to his staff - in the end he had his way and had "the three happiest days of my life" as he put it.

With contemporary speeches and comments, oral history interviews, 44 photos, extensive chapter notes, bibliography, and index, One of Ourselves is a worthy addition to public, academic, and personal libraries on Kennedy, US Presidents, and Irish Studies.

About the Author

James Robert Carroll has been a reporter for three decades, covering Washington since 1983. A graduate of Boston University, he started his career as a correspondent for The Boston Globe, then worked for The Daily Transcript in Dedham and the now-defunct Beverly Times, both in Massachusetts. He covered California government and politics in Sacramento for The Orange County Register for more than five years before moving to Washington for the Long Beach (California) Press-Telegram and Knight-Ridder Newspapers. He joined The Louisville Courier-Journal as its Washington reporter in 1997 and is now its Washington Bureau Chief. Among other honors, Carroll has won the National Press Club’s award for best regional reporter in Washington and the National Press Foundation’s award for energy and environmental reporting. He is also the author of The Real Woodrow Wilson: An Interview with Arthur S. Link, Editor of the Wilson Papers.

Carroll has had a long interest in presidents, dating from his days as a teenaged volunteer in presidential campaigns in the 1960s. As a reporter in Washington, he has covered the administrations of the last four presidents. Ireland likewise has been an abiding passion. He has visited the nation a half dozen times and written news and travel stories from Ireland for American newspapers, as well as reported from Washington on Irish affairs. He and his wife, Carol Vernon, and their daughters Fiona and Brenna, live in Alexandria, Virginia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Images from the Past Inc (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884592406
• ISBN-13: 978-1884592409
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #465,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( K ) > Kennedy, Robert

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different JFK, December 5, 2003

By 

mmd (Bennington, VT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One of Ourselves: John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Ireland (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars With 44 black-and-white photographs and prints, December 7, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One of Ourselves: John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Ireland (Hardcover)

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!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A revealing celebration of his world, April 4, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One of Ourselves: John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Ireland (Hardcover)

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.