New Ross welcomes news that there is to be a memorial park to President John F Kennedy.
In a speech at the Wexford Chamber of Commerce dinner, Minister for Industry and Commerce Jack Lynch confirmed the plan to establish an arboretum and a forest garden to commemorate the late President John F Kennedy in County Wexford.
The site chosen for the memorial park is on the slopes of Slieve Coillte, an historic hill overlooking the River Barrow and close to the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown.
President John F Kennedy's second cousin once-removed Mary Ryan will be able to see the park from her home and thinks the project is a wonderful tribute.
I think he would love to have it in the parish.
Local man Patrick Hickey explains the importance of Slieve Coillte in the 1798 rebellion and says it is mentioned in the folk song ‘Boolavogue’.
People on the streets of New Ross there are unanimous in their enthusiasm for the park.
I think it’s going to be a great project, I think it’s going to be grand.
Many consider it a fitting memorial.
It’s only right that it should be erected in his own parish, or the parish of his great grandfather.
Others are pleased the park will be a lasting memorial.
It will be there for years and years to come and is actually a living memorial to a great man.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 17 January 1964.
