June 27, 1963 - Irish eyes were glued to television screens today, but it was in County Wexford on the Irish Sea, from which Patrick J. Kennedy sailed for the New World in 1849, that President Kennedy appeared in person and the crowds turned out to cheer. “I am glad to see a few cousins who did not catch the boat,” said the President to the Kennedy kin among his welcomers. On the quay at New Ross where his great-grandfather last stood on Irish soil, Mr. Kennedy spoke to a crowd of 10,000. Then he visited Dunganstown, where Patrick Kennedy was born, and where a cousin, Mrs. Mary Ryan, and her two daughters, live. Among the gifts the family gave the President were a silver tray, a set of china, and a sheepskin mat. Dr. Martin J. Quigley, the family physician, said the mat was “to be put by Mrs. Kennedy’s bed for the arrival of the twins” — a reference to the child expected in August. At a picnic table in the farmyard, the President ate a salmon sandwich, cut a piece of cake for Mrs. Ryan, and drank a cup of tea “to all the Kennedys who went and those who stayed.”
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