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United Kingdom and Ireland in The White House-Photo 10

United Kingdom and Ireland in The White House-Photo 10

President John F. Kennedy described St. Patrick’s Day as not only a day of celebration but one of “dedication as well, as purely American as it is Irish, recalling for all that ours is a nation founded, sustained, and now preserved in the cause of liberty. None more than the Irish can attest the power of that cause once it has gripped a nation's soul.”
On St. Patrick’s Day 1961, Thomas J. Kiernan, Ambassador of Ireland, presented President Kennedy with a bowl of shamrocks in an Oval Office ceremony. Ambassador Kiernan also gave the president a scroll with the Kennedy family coat of arms.

Credit
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum/NARA

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