Poetic parting lines

Sir, – Frank McNally’s report on the Kennedy weekend in New Ross, (An Irishman’s Diary, September 6th), brought back memories of the reopening of the Kennedy Homestead in 2013.

I was fortunate to hear Seamus Heaney read a poem in the presence of a newly unveiled bust of Ted Kennedy.

However, it was another Irish poet that captured the event for me. While examining the exhibition my wife and I stood beside Jean Kennedy Smith in front of a photograph of her brother, Bobby.

She recounted to us that when he was campaigning for presidency of the US, he would alert the massive following press corps that he was about to conclude his speech and signal that it was time to get back on their coaches by saying: “As WB Yeats wrote…” – Yours, etc,

Irish in London: ‘Nobody was making me stay. I could have left at any time and gone home to Sligo ... That was 24 years ago’

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Anthony Boyle: ‘My dad had to go to Gaelic training, and the same British soldier would throw his kit in a puddle every day’

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‘It’s an eye-opener’: The Irish medics training Ukrainian lawyers, vets and photographers to help the war effort

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David McWilliams: A small town in Co Kerry and a formula for rejuvenating rural Ireland

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ENDA CULLEN,

Armagh.