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JOY de Burgh O’Brien was the first
of a new breed. In the early 1960’s
she was one of Ireland’s foremost
young ballerinas - destined for a career on the stages of Europe. When a
back injury left her unable to dance,
she embarked on a different sort of
adventure - a journey to Shannon to
become one of the first of the new
Bunratty Banquet Singers.
In 1963, the Bunratty singers were
Ireland’s foremost cultural ambassadors - the Riverdance of their day.
Within three months of beginning
her job, Joy was aboard Airforce
One, winging her way to Dublin to
perform in front of the most powerful man in the world.
“He [JFK] sent one of the presidential helicopters down to Shannon
- and I’ve never been in a helicopter
before or since - and he flew us up
to the American embassy to perform.
We went into a room, got into costume and waiter our turn. We were
called out into a crowded room - he
looked up as us and he said ‘I know
those girls’. With a little wink at us.
We sang for him and we had a little
meal. Afterwards he came over to us
and - it’s the saddest thing about it
- he asked us to come and sing at the
Whitehouse. Now, there is a lump in
my throat even now as I’m saying it,
because he was dead by the time we
made it,” says Joy.
“I feel very privileged to have met
him. These days things have changed,
presidents have changed, maybe it’s
not so magical as it was then. We
were all Kennedy lovers - all of us.
He was the redeemer of the western world at that time. I suppose we
didn’t get to have a lot of interaction
with him at that time. There were
embassy people everywhere and he
was on a very tight schedule - they
were rushing him and rushing him.
“But he came to talk to us after the
show. I think he was willing to spend
as much time as he could with people but he was being rushed along.
He came over to us and said that he
loved the music. He said ‘it’s a pity
my wife can’t be here,’ she was expecting a baby at the time. He said,
‘look, I’m going to have you sing
over at the White House’. I remember
him saying that to all of us - he said
it would be wonderful for Ireland. I
remember that so clearly. I couldn’t
tell you what I did yesterday but I remember that so clearly.
“After that we had to fly back to
Shannon in the helicopter and perform at a banquet that night. So
there was a bit of exhausting setting
in at the end. We went to the airport
(Shannon) to see him off but I can’t
remember if we sang for him.”
Four months later, Joy was sitting
in the Shannon Shamrock when the
dramatic news of November 22,
1963, first reached her ears.
“I remember the second I heard. I
was in the Shannon Shamrock - that
was our headquarters for meals before
a banquet. I was in the front porch of
the hotel and I remember one of the
receptionists flying out and shouting
‘Oh my God, Kennedy’s been shot|!
Kennedy’s been shot!’. I was sitting
with a marvelous pop singer called
Adam Face. I remember him looking
at me and saying ‘oh no!’,” remembers Joy.
“We went back into the hotel and
listened to the radio. We didn’t want
to do a banquet that night. We really
didn’t. But there were a lot of people booked in and the powers that be
said that we had to go ahead with it.
It was the saddest, most miserable
night that we ever spent in Bunratty.
I really choke up when I think about
it. They say the show must go on but
I don’t think the show should have
gone on that night. It is still emotional now thinking about it.
“In the White House we were
brought up to the Oval Office and we
walked around - there were so many
photographers from the American
media. We visited the grave also
when we were over there. That was
very emotional. I remember we were
just standing there looking at it - the
whole thing was so unreal. The flame
just shot up into the air.
“We were very religious girls. I’m
not sure would they be religious now,
because it’s not fashionable, but we
just prayed and prayed and prayed for
him. We held each other. Everyone
was so wonderful to us over there
- they really were, but it was just an
emotional trip.
“In some ways it’s a hard thing to
talk about. I don’t like cemeteries.
Just seeing that flame there and know
that he was gone... it was very difficult. I think of it as my privilege to
have met that wonderful man. Such
a privilege.”
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Eight girls sing at Embassy luncheon
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PRESIDENT Kennedy’ charm and spontaneity delighted guests at yesterday’s US Embassy luncheon
which he gave in honour of the President, Mr de
Valera, and the Taoiseach, Mr Lemass.
Mr Kennedy joined in with eight Bunratty Castle courier hostesses in an impromptu rendition of
Danny Boy.
Earlier the hostesses were whisked to Dublin from
Shannon in a helicopter of the presidential flight to
entertain the two presidents and guests at the luncheon.
The American ambassador, Mr McCloskey met
them when, with press secretary Pierre Salinger, he
was entertained at Bunratty Castle during the mediaeval dinner tourist attraction.
At the time he was making a preliminary arrangement tour for the presidential visit and he decided to
invite the couriers to Dublin.
The eight girls, dressed in their 15th century gowns,
presented as somewhat incongruous picture as they
boarded the 20th century helicopter at Shannon.
Back at Shannon last night, Ruth Hill, the producer
of the group told me: “We had a wonderful time.
President Kennedy asked to meet us after the lunch
and chatted and shook hands with us all.
It was when President Kennedy asked the girls for
an encore and suggested ‘Danny Boy’ that he joined
in himself in the song. We were absolutely thrilled
said Miss Hill, a Dubliner now living in Shannon.
During the lunch the girls sang a number of Irish
airs. The programme began with their signature
tune, ‘ Jug of Punch’ and they continued with ‘The
West’s Awake’, ‘Róisín Dubh’ and ‘Puc ar Buille’
President Kennedy is to hear more of the Bunratty
girls. He asked if they would be in Shannon to sing
for him there and last night the group were working
on their farewell programme. The girls were presented with signed photographs and flowers.
Mr and Mrs de Valera drove to the Embassy from
Áras an Uachtaráin with a motor cycle escort of
Gardai. They were welcomed on arrival by Mr McCloskey, the American Ambassador.
Three helicopters came from Cork, President
Kennedy’s own being the last to touch down. With
him on the journey was Mr Aiken, Minster for External Affairs and Mr Lynch, Minister for Industry
and Commerce travelled in another. In the third were
the eight hostesses from Bunratty Castle.
When President Kennedy arrived at the Embassy
there was a crowd of about 150 waiting on the lawn
to meet him. As he emerged from the helicopter
he gave the famous Kennedy salute and the crowd
rushed forward to claim handshakes, but the security
men and Gardai held the people back firmly.
Nevertheless, President Kennedy put his hand over
the heads of the bodyguard and shook a few hands,
speaking brief words of greeting and appreciation.
He entered the Embassy through a rear door.
The attendance at the luncheon included Dr Patrick
Hillery, Minster for Education and his wife Mrs
Maeve Hillery Mr Paddy Hogan, Ceann Comhaille
fo Dáil Éireann and Mrs Dorothy Tubridy, widow
of Kilrush man Michael Tubridy, the international
showjumper and All-Ireland football medallist with
Cork.
The Irish Press
Not a dry eye at Shannon Airport
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DOROTHY Tubridy stopped President Kennedy
before he left. “Are you glad you came?” she asked
him.“These were the three happiest days I’ve ever
spent in my life,” Kennedy answered.
A man yelled out: “It has been the greatest visit in
our history!” To which Kennedy answered: “It has
been a great experience for me too”.
It was obvious to all. George Meaney, president of
the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations), whose ancestors had come from central Ireland, had been with
Kennedy and watched him up close. “Oh, his mood
was just as happy and just as delightful as he could
be. He just felt really at home. He had a rare sense of
humour and he had the type of humour that the Irish
understand. He was always poking a little fun at himself, which the Irish are very good at, and this visit
there was, I am quite sure, one of the most pleasant
days he ever spent because he felt right at home.”
Kennedy walked to his jet as people called out to
him, God bless you.Bunratty Castle singers rendered
‘Danny Boy’ one more time. And for all the exposure, for all his appearances across Éire, some people
felt that the party had hardly started. One sign held
up at Shannon, which would have special poignancy
five months later, borrowed the title from a sad Irish
ballad: ‘Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye’.
“You are great people,” the President was heard
to say as he neared his plane. Lawrence O’Brien remembered seeing the President “deeply and visibly
moved, as were we all”.
“If there was a dry eye at the airport,” O’Brien said,
“I missed it”.
‘One of Ourselves – John Fitzgerald Kennedy in
Ireland’ by James Robert Carroll
“I WAS 18, I had just finished by
studies in Paris - at the Sorbonne
- and I spoke French and Italian. I
loved the arts, I loved to travel and I
loved people so I was trying to figure
out what I should do with my life. I
didn’t want to do an Arts degree and
end up teaching so I spotted this add
for Bunratty and I said I’d give it a
go. I had no idea what I was getting
into,” remembers Breda.
“I had only just started in Bunratty when the JFK visit took place. I
was finishing school, so I was a few
months later starting than the rest of
the group so I was literally just in the
door.
“I had no idea of what it was going
to be like. It was a wonderful group of
girls - every one of them
was extremely talented.
They all had a background in music or in the
artist somewhere. They
all had magnificent solo
voices like Joy, Una Kelly, Fionnuala O’Sullivan
- they were all extremely
talent, charming young
women.
“There were only eight
of us so we all got to
know each other very well. We all
lived together in Shannon. We were
kind-of thrown together into two
flats, side by side. It was an absolutely wonderful experience for a girl of
18 years.
“At the time I suppose we were the
cultural icons of Ireland. We were the
Riverdance of our time and we were
asked to perform whenever anything
really important was happening.
“I remember being flown up on
Airforce One from Shannon to Dublin. I remember walking across the
grass at the American Embassy and
there a stage set up for us. At the end
of the dinner we got on stage and
entertained. I can still see President
Kennedy at the end of the banquet
hall. He kept craning his head and
looking over at us - he was so impressed that we were invited to sing
for him again at Shannon before he
left.
“I felt very privileged and excited
to meet he. He really was a very big
icon for young people at that time.
The kind of person that you love
when you are young. He was the kind
of person that you need to have when
you are young. I think you need people like that. We were all so proud of
him, as an Irish man. He broke the
glass ceiling. If he could do that, we
could go anywhere. That’s how we
felt.
“I remember each of us were introduced to President Kennedy. When
he got to me he asked me ‘what part
of Ireland do you come from’. And I
said ‘County Cork Mister President’.
I was so over the moon. And after
that meeting he invited us to come
and visit him in the White House.
“We did go to Washington to meet
him the following year, but we went
to Arlington Military Cemetery. But
we did visit the White
House, we were even
allowed into the Oval
Office. I remember Una
Kelly sat in President
Kennedy’s chair in the
Oval Office and had her
photograph taken. We
met President Johnson
on the lawns of the White
House but it wasn’t the
same. It was so sad, we
weren’t meeting the real
president as far as we were concerned.
“I remember hearing that he was
dead, on the radio. I was in the Shannon Shamrock, just on my way to
work, I remember that we burst into
tears. Like everyone, I think half of
Ireland burst into tears when they
heard. It was such a sad day.
“We visited Arlington and we paid
him tribute but I prefer to think of him
when he was alive and that fabulous
time when he was in Ireland. That is
the memory that I want to keep of
him - when he was in Ireland. That
is my memory, alive, charismatic and
inspiring.
“I think we were all very privileged
to meet him. To be able to sing for
the first Irish American president
that ever came to Ireland. Somethng
that stays with you forever. It certainly doesn’t happen every day of
the week.”
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