Tubs' take is picture perfect
Bord Gáis Book Club
JFK In Ireland
Ryan Tubridy
'Write about what you know' is the oldest maxim in the literary business and one which Ryan Tubridy clearly took to heart before embarking on this engaging study of John F Kennedy's celebrated 1963 visit to Ireland, a visit which, in the popular imagination ranks alongside those of St Patrick and John-Paul II!
The significance of the Kennedy visit has been a subject in search of a writer for decades and on the evidence of these pages, in Tubridy, it may have found the right man at last.
Scion of a distinguished political dynasty, political junkie, Yankophile, and unashamed fogey with a grá for all things retro-chic, Tubridy ticks all the boxes for the job and perhaps for these very reasons, makes a more than decent fist of it.
This of course may disappoint those who might have expected (and hoped for) an amateurish effort to jeer at but begrudgers can forget it because this is not just a handsome volume, it's enjoyable, breezily-written, and for the most part, presents its arguments persuasively. It's no small talent to write as one speaks but the familiar Tubs enthusiasm permeates the whole book and is the better for it.
Inevitably, much of the story is familiar territory. Young, tanned matinee-idol, the first Catholic President of the USA, flies into the land of his forbears and lights up the monochrome landscape of sixties Ireland with his 100W smile and his irresistible pla mas.
Still, Kennedy's reverence for his roots was genuine, as the lovely letter Jackie Kennedy wrote to Dev after the assassination suggests. There was no political or strategic advantage to be gained from the visit; he simply wanted to come and insisted upon it. By doing so, he bequeathed modern Irish history one brief shining chapter which we never tire of reading. Tubridy flirts with the danger of investing that chapter with real causal significance but on balance, manages to stay onside.
Did JFK really illuminate Ireland's path to modernity? Was Ireland changed utterly as a consequence of his visit? Alas, probably not, but at a time when the darker side of our history is being mercilessly exposed, it's no harm to recall the good times in the company of a darned good storyteller. Fabulous photographs too!
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