Incredible Photos From the Kennedy Family’s Trips to Ireland in the 1930s

In June 1963, JFK became the first sitting US president to visit Ireland. There are many gorgeous photos of the trip to Ireland, which would sadly be his last, all of them imbued with a sense of respect, awe, and history in the making.

Photos from the Kennedy family’s trips to Ireland in the 1930s could not be more different. They're the classic tourist photos that any family who's taken a trip to Ireland and seen the major attractions has: kissing the Blarney Stone, walking the streets of Dublin, posing at the Giants Causeway, riding a horse through the lakes and valleys of Killarney. Many of the photos are candid or surreptitious shots, some are blurry, smudged, or out of focus.
 

Plucked from the Kennedy family’s photo albums they were digitized and stored for posterity in the archives of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
 

Kathleen Kennedy (left) rides on horseback with an unidentified woman (center) and an unidentified boy through the Gap of Dunloe in Killarney National Park, Killarney, Ireland, during a Kennedy family trip in 1937.

Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (center, surrounded by several unidentified people), sits on the basalt rock at Giant’s Causeway in Bushmills, Northern Ireland, during a Kennedy family trip in 1937.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy poses in front of the United States Legation in Dublin, Ireland, during a Kennedy family trip.

Kick and Joe, Jr. with their mother Rose, on board the SS Washington en route to Ireland.

Kathleen Kennedy (wearing hat) and Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (smoking a pipe), stand on the grass with their arms around each other outside Blarney Castle in Blarney, Ireland, during a Kennedy family trip.

Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. in Killarney on a family trip to Ireland, ca. 1937.

Rosemary Kennedy (middle, wearing hat, holding purse) poses between Kennedy family friend, Betty Rice (right), and an unidentified woman, in front of a life preserver at Kilcroney Castle in Bray, Ireland, during a trip.

Rosemary Kennedy (wearing hat, holding cigarette and coat) poses beside a car near Kilcroney Castle in Bray, during her trip to Ireland, 1938.

Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (second from left) sits aboard a motor boat with an unidentified woman and boy in Ireland, during a Kennedy family trip; an unidentified man (standing) operates the outboard motor at right.

Kathleen Kennedy (second from right) poses with several unidentified people in Ireland, during a Kennedy family trip. Original caption read “with typical Irish Lady.”

Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (partially visible), leans back to kiss the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in Blarney, Ireland, during a Kennedy family trip.

Kathleen Kennedy (partially visible) leans back to kiss the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in Blarney, Ireland, during a Kennedy family trip.

Rose Fitzgerald leans back to kiss the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle, while traveling in Blarney, Ireland, during her school year abroad in 1908 (19 years later she would get to take her children to she same spot).

View of Killiney Strand (Beach) in Killiney, Ireland. Original caption reads “View near Dublin.”

View of a grocery store in Dublin, Ireland; shop sign reads “W. Kinsella, Grocery & Provisions.”

Two unidentified women sit on a cart pulled by a donkey in Ireland. Woman at left is partially visible; woman at right holds reins.

(Photos © John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. Kennedy Family Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston; via Irish Central History)