Secret papers reveal threat to kill JFK at Shannon
US President John F. Kennedy on a meet and Greet at Limerick’s Greenpark Racecourse in 1963.(Limerick…A Stroll Down Memory Lane Vol. 3)
Secret papers released this week reveal that Gardai had received a threat to kill US President John F. Kennedy, just five months before he was shot in Dallas Texas.
One of three threats received in a telephone call to Gardai claimed that a bomb would be placed on an aircraft at Shannon Airport as the US President prepared to return to the states after his three day visit.
While this threat, and others, including a claim that a sniper would be waiting for Kennedy on his way from Dublin Airport to Aras An Uchterain, were treated as hoaxes, it was decided that almost half of the country’s Garda contingient would be stationed between Dublin Airport and the Phoenix Park.
In a letter to Department of Justice officials, Garda Commissioner Daniel Costigan said; “While any attempt on the life of the president is most unlikely, we cannot overlook the possibility of some lunatic, fanatical, Communist, Puerto Rican or some other such like person coming here to try to assassinate the president.�
It was also feared that British journalists would use the opportunity to rip the piss out of Ireland, should anything go wrong with the visit.