The County Limerick community of Bruff will hold a remembrance mass for US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of his death at the church of St Peter & Paul this Friday (22nd November, 2013) at 11am.
Organised by Bruff Heritage Group, the mass will be celebrated by Bishop of Limerick Dr. Brendan Leahy.
The event will be followed by a function in the Thomas Fitzgerald Centre at which an announcement of a permanent display of memorabilia and photographs of JFK’s visit to Limerick and Ireland in 1963 and the Fitzgerald family’s connection to Bruff will be made.
In June members of the late President’s family, including his daughter Caroline, travelled to the East Limerick village where JFK’s Great Grandfather emigrated from in 1852. JFK’s Grandfather, John ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald and son of Thomas Fitzgerald and would later go on to be elected Mayor of Boston thus heralding one of the world’s most enduring political dynasties. Poignantly for the people of Bruff, the family bible brought by Thomas Fitzgerald from Bruff to America was used by JFK when taking his oath of office in 1961. the bible is now on permanent display in the John F Kennedy library in Boston
During the June visit, Bruff’s former District Court building was renamed the ‘Thomas Fitzgerald Centre’ by Caroline Kennedy in acknowledgement of the strong links between Bruff and the Fitzgerald Kennedy Family.
According to Paul Dennehy, Chairperson of Bruff Heritage Group: “Tom Fitzgerald, the man whose descendants gave the Kennedys the “F” in their name, was born in Bruff in 1823. Friday’s mass will not only be moving occasion for everyone with links to the Fitzgeralds, but it will also allow the people of the village to celebrate the life of a wonderful politician whose Irish ancestry remains a great source of pride to this day.”
The JFK 50th anniversary mass takes place at the church of St Peter & Paul in Bruff, Co. Limerick, on Friday, 22 November 2013, at 11am.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Thomas Fitzgerald left Bruff in 1852 and travelled to Boston, America in search of a better life. He married Rosanna Cox from Cavan and one of their children was John “HoneyFitz” Fitzgerald who went on to become Mayor of Boston, serving a number of terms in office. “Honeyfitz” married his second cousin Mary Hannon whose family also came from Bruff. Their daughter was Rose Fitzgerald, born July 22nd 1890, who married Joe Kennedy in 1914 and one of their children was John F Kennedy- the 35th President of the United States of America.
When Caroline Kennedy and her family arrive in Bruff on the 21st of June, it will mean that every generation of the Fitzgerald Kennedys will have visited Bruff. In 1908 John “Honeyfitz” Fitzgerald and his daughter Rose Fitzgerald aged 18 visited Bruff and stayed in Shaughnessy’s Hotel on the Main Street for three days. During their stay, they visited the site of the small farmhouse at The Pike, Bruff where the Fitzgeralds were born. All that remains now is a model of the farmhouse which was constructed in the early 1960s by a local artist who had married into descendants of the Fitzgerald family. That model has now been restored by Bruff Heritage Group and is display in the Thomas Fitzgerald Centre.
Organised by Bruff Heritage Group, the mass will be celebrated by Bishop of Limerick Dr. Brendan Leahy.
The event will be followed by a function in the Thomas Fitzgerald Centre at which an announcement of a permanent display of memorabilia and photographs of JFK’s visit to Limerick and Ireland in 1963 and the Fitzgerald family’s connection to Bruff will be made.
In June members of the late President’s family, including his daughter Caroline, travelled to the East Limerick village where JFK’s Great Grandfather emigrated from in 1852. JFK’s Grandfather, John ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald and son of Thomas Fitzgerald and would later go on to be elected Mayor of Boston thus heralding one of the world’s most enduring political dynasties. Poignantly for the people of Bruff, the family bible brought by Thomas Fitzgerald from Bruff to America was used by JFK when taking his oath of office in 1961. the bible is now on permanent display in the John F Kennedy library in Boston
During the June visit, Bruff’s former District Court building was renamed the ‘Thomas Fitzgerald Centre’ by Caroline Kennedy in acknowledgement of the strong links between Bruff and the Fitzgerald Kennedy Family.
According to Paul Dennehy, Chairperson of Bruff Heritage Group: “Tom Fitzgerald, the man whose descendants gave the Kennedys the “F” in their name, was born in Bruff in 1823. Friday’s mass will not only be moving occasion for everyone with links to the Fitzgeralds, but it will also allow the people of the village to celebrate the life of a wonderful politician whose Irish ancestry remains a great source of pride to this day.”
The JFK 50th anniversary mass takes place at the church of St Peter & Paul in Bruff, Co. Limerick, on Friday, 22 November 2013, at 11am.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Thomas Fitzgerald left Bruff in 1852 and travelled to Boston, America in search of a better life. He married Rosanna Cox from Cavan and one of their children was John “HoneyFitz” Fitzgerald who went on to become Mayor of Boston, serving a number of terms in office. “Honeyfitz” married his second cousin Mary Hannon whose family also came from Bruff. Their daughter was Rose Fitzgerald, born July 22nd 1890, who married Joe Kennedy in 1914 and one of their children was John F Kennedy- the 35th President of the United States of America.
When Caroline Kennedy and her family arrive in Bruff on the 21st of June, it will mean that every generation of the Fitzgerald Kennedys will have visited Bruff. In 1908 John “Honeyfitz” Fitzgerald and his daughter Rose Fitzgerald aged 18 visited Bruff and stayed in Shaughnessy’s Hotel on the Main Street for three days. During their stay, they visited the site of the small farmhouse at The Pike, Bruff where the Fitzgeralds were born. All that remains now is a model of the farmhouse which was constructed in the early 1960s by a local artist who had married into descendants of the Fitzgerald family. That model has now been restored by Bruff Heritage Group and is display in the Thomas Fitzgerald Centre.
