On June 6, 2013, An Post issued two stamps to celebrate the life and achievements of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The 60c stamp is the stamp shown.

The son of a wealthy and political Irish-American family, John F. Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Massachusetts, USA. After graduating from Harvard University in 1940, he spent a brief period in the US Navy. He then entered politics as a Democrat, winning seats to the US House of Representatives in 1946, 1948 and 1950, and to the US Senate in 1952 and 1958. In 1960 he won the party’s presidential nomination and went on to become America’s 35th President – the first and only Irish Catholic to hold this office.

During an historic four day visit to Ireland in June 1963, he visited his ancestral home in Dunganstown, Co. Wexford. He also attended a ceremony honouring the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, at Arbour Hill Cemetery, Dublin and addressed the members of the Dáil and Seanad from the floor of Leinster House. Tragically, just five months later, President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22 in Dallas, Texas.

The stamp was designed by Steve Simpson. The 60c stamp shows John F. Kennedy, with his cousins’ daughter, Mary Ann Ryan, in Dunganstown.

Source: Irish Post

published June 16th, 2013