Kennedy Received Death Threats during Visit to Ireland in 1963

Former United States President, John F. Kennedy, received 3 death threats during his presidential visit to Ireland in 1963, the year in which he was later murdered in Texas. From letters made public by the Irish Justice Department recently, it has been exposed that two anonymous telephone calls were made to the Irish police, in the weeks prior to the visit, threatening to kill the first Irish-Catholic President of the United States. The third threat arrived at the offices if the Irish newspaper, the Independent.

One of the telephone threats claimed the President will be shot by a sniper in the beginning of the presidential visit as the motorcade made its way from the Dublin International Airport to the Irish Presidential Palace. The second phone threat said that a bomb would go off in an airport in Shannon, Southwestern Ireland, near the takeoff of Air Force 1, the presidential plane. The threat made to the Independent was vague and only said that the President will be attacked at the Dublin international Airport.

In a letter that was made public Daniel Costigan, who was the police commissioner at the time, told his subordinates that ?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.? Costigan said that Kennedy`s visit to Ireland was ?the most important visit to this country since the establishment of the state, with worldwide publicity. British journalists are likely to be ready to criticize any fault in arrangements.?

                                 

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