Dunbrody Ship and Kennedy Homestead

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On Day 3, the group checked out of the Maldron Hotel Cardiff Lane, Sir Rogersons Quay, Cardiff Lane, Dublin 2 and headed to Southeast Ireland to County Wexford.

Day 3 was a very long day. Our guide, Robbie mentioned at the start that scheduling would be tight. Instead of a reasonable 2 tours per day, the tour operator had scheduled 4 tours and a long drive from Dublin to the next hotel. The first two tours of Day 3 were of the Dunbrody Famine Ship and the Kennedy Homestead.

The Dunbrody Famine Ship tour was fascinating. I have not done a lot of reading on the history of Ireland and this tour helped me to understand the history between England and Ireland. The English did not want the Irish in Ireland and strongly encouraged them to get out. That is putting it nicely.

Irelanders today love Americans because we helped them out when they needed us most. I feel that the people of Ireland are passionate and genuine about their country’s history and hardship. Setting foot in Ireland and hearing the native Irelanders retell their history taught me more than I would have learned from any book on the subject.

The Kennedy Homestead was, perhaps, my favorite trip stop. One of President Kennedy’s cousins, who still lives on the property, showed us a video clip of President Kennedy’s visit to his grandfather’s homestead. Then, we toured the property that we saw on the video.

I had never seen a live video clip of President Kennedy and I studied the video clip of him visiting his grandfather’s homestead. My eyes did not veer from the TV screen once JFK’s cousin started the clip.

I noticed that for a young man, President Kennedy moved stiffly because he had back problems. He appeared to have a healthy sense of humor and enjoyed meeting with the people from his grandfather’s village. The villagers would hand him a piece of cake and he would politely put it down and move on to meet with more villagers. I am not sure I ever saw him eat a bite of cake, but I kept watching to see if he would eat any. He had a friendliness and candor that is not expected of a President. He became one of the people and that made him endearing.

The remainder of the day, while the group was traveling from location to location, Robbie played some of President Kennedy’s speeches for us. I felt like I was in President Kennedy’s presence the rest of the afternoon. I appreciated that Robbie brought along the speeches or found them on YouTube to educate us on a part of our history which overlaps Irish history.