TOM KENNEDY: TOM KENNEDY, a legendary Kerryman who worked all his life for Ireland in New York died last week at the age of 90. In a career that spanned half a century he was the official public relations manager for Aer Lingus in North America. He was hired by the airline in 1957 when it opened up a transatlantic service from Dublin/Shannon to New York and Boston.
Brendan O’Kelly, who came on board as vice-president sales for the new service and worked with Tom Kennedy for 50 years, said he was one of the most energetic and highly respected public relations professionals in the airline business.
Born in Tralee and reared and educated in Dublin, Kennedy emigrated to New York in the mid-1940s where his mother and stepfather were already living. He went into journalism, did a stint with the New York Times and moved on to a leading public relations agency.
In his new job with Aer Lingus he rapidly became the liaison man with the Irish emigrant population in the greater New York area.
They comprised different organisations with quite diverse political views, could be very demanding and not the easiest to handle, but Kennedy won them around to see Aer Lingus as their own. He was a great communicator, had a wonderful sense of humour and always tried to see the other person’s point of view.
He belonged to a generation who saw their job as working for Ireland as much as the airline. To him Aer Lingus was an integral part of the Irish economy and its success was for the benefit of Ireland.
Eventually the Irish in America took pride in the sight of a Boeing 747 with the shamrock on the tailfin parked at an American airport.
Many had never been back to Ireland and now it was only five hours’ flying time to Shannon. That was the cultural revolution of the Boeing 747.
It opened up mass air travel for the first time and in the case of Aer Lingus the service and courtesy of staff on board rivalled any of its competitors.
In addition to his job at Aer Lingus, Kennedy reached out to the wider community in the US. He was well known to senators and congressmen on Capitol Hill, especially those who were involved with Irish immigration and the issue of landing rights for US carriers to Dublin which threatened the survival of the fledlging Irish carrier on the Atlantic route. He had met President John F Kennedy during his visit to Ireland and was in Arlington cemetery for the president’s funeral.
He travelled with Jacqueline Kennedy and the children to Ireland and visited Wexford.
Visiting politicians from Ireland dropped in to the office on Fifth Avenue to consult him on where to go and who to see. During the Troubles he was seconded by the Irish government to travel with a group throughout the US to explain the complexity of the situation in Ireland.
He became an adviser and mentor to a younger generation of Aer Lingus management who were sent out to New York for a few years before going back to higher office in Ireland.
When he retired in the mid-1980s he joined the American Ireland Fund, where his contact lists were invaluable. For him, the fund was yet another example of the long way Ireland had come from the days when he started. Now the middle-class Irish diaspora were using their business expertise to develop the economy at home.
He and his wife Valerie came over to the fund meetings in Dublin every year up to last year and Kennedy generally got in a trip to his beloved Co Kerry after the Derby at the Curragh in Co Kildare. He was a regular at Irish theatre events in New York and was active in the programmes at Ireland House.
Perhaps his contribution is best summarised by a longtime friend at his funeral Mass when he said: “Tom was an urbane example of everything that is good that is Irish.”
He will be sadly missed by his wife Valerie, daughters Kathleen and Johanne, sons Kevin and Gerry and stepson Ben Kelly.
Tom Kennedy: born June 23rd, 1921; died October 21st, 2011