It will be 57 years ago this forthcoming weekend since the awful events in Dealey Plaza.
My parents said they were at a guest-tea (correct spelling?) in Innisrush Church Hall, on Friday 22nd November 1963.
Kennedy was shot just after mid-day, at 12.30pm Texas time, which would have been 6.30pm in Ireland.
They said that someone came into the hall, from the village, with the news that the President had been shot in Dallas. I have a feeling that dad told me who came to the Hall with the news. But I don’t remember.
A public statement, just over an hour after the shooting, confirming Kennedy’s death, was released by White House Acting Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff, at 1:33 p.m Dallas time – which would have been 7.33pm in Northern Ireland.
After the initial shock of the news of the shooting, the subsequent news via the radio, of JFK’s death, soon started to filter through the village and up to the Hall. It was a night no-one would forget. A moment in time.
Where Were You?
I know this site has subscribers from across the world. Where were you when you heard the news of Kennedy’s killing?
For Innisrush folk, and those in the local area, where were you?
Can anyone confirm the gathering in Innisrush Hall that night? Were you, or perhaps your parents, grandparents, uncle/aunt at the Hall? Was it a ‘guest-tea’ or something else related to the church? Who brought the news to the Hall? Did any house in the area have a TV as early as November 1963?
I was in grade 9 French class when received the news of Kennedy’s assassination. Our teacher was Rosaire Roy.
On that day, I was in the Student Union Hall at Southeastern Louisiana College (Now Southeastern Louisiana University) in Hammond, Louisiana, United States of America. Years later,I read some reports about the assassination and saw some names I recognized from New Orleans, Louisiana. Also on that day, I wondered if I, as a member of the military, I would be called upon in some way that would change my life completely. Thank God, I was not activated and I went on to have a nice career for many years in commercial broadcasting.
Very interesting! Here in Germany we ask each other, where we were on November 9th, 1989, when the Wall was opened.
Ahhhh! So where were you when the Berlin Wall was opened, Anje?
For my generation, rather than JFK, it was ‘where were you when you heard of Princess Diana’s death”
I was still small, already sleeping, when late at night my parents received a call from a west-berlin-friend that the wall was open. My father woke me up and with our Wartburg the two of us drove across the border, celebrating people everywhere…. My mother had to stay with my siblings. My father left me with that friend because I had fallen asleep there and returned home alone. My mother was totally mad. She was afraid that the border would be closed again and she would never see me again.
I was 10 years old and in the 5th grade in the US. My parents had held me out of school that day. My brothers and I were staying with my grandmother, so my parents could spend the day Christmas shopping. My grandmother had the TV on in the living room, where I was working on a craft project. She was in the kitchen making some early preparations for dinner. The TV broke in to the programming with a news bulletin about Kennedy’s assassination and my grandmother came running not believing what was being said. I remember watching history unfold for days on the television including Lee Harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby live as it happened. Remember so much in vivid detail. The grief was palpable everywhere.