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Kennedy and Reagan
Two Irish-American Presidents and the Berlin Wall
Several American Presidents could boast of at least some Irish ancestry, dating back to Andrew Jackson, whose parents came to America from Antrim.
Two of these Irish-American Presidents saw the rise and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The first was John F. Kennedy, who was born in 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts and who was President from 1961 to 1963. The second was Ronald W. Reagan, who was born in 1911 in Tampico, Illinois, and who was President from 1981 through 1989.
JFK’s Irish roots can be traced all over Ireland — Wexford, Limerick, Fermanagh, Cork, and Clare. His family were Irish Catholics and since they didn’t believe in birth control, he was part of a large, boisterous family.
Ronald Reagan boasted three Irish ancestors, including his great-grandfather, Michael Regan who hailed from Tipperary. Regan was Irish Catholic, but other Reagan ancestors were Scots-Irish and Reagan’s parents were Protestants. Reagan, the younger of two children, remembers his mother running prayer meetings.
Both men faced some troubled times — JFK’s father, Joseph Kennedy, was a notorious womanizer and was involved in illegal activities. Reagan’s father was an alcoholic.
