Poetic parting lines

Remembering Bobby Kennedy on the campaign trail

Sir, – Frank McNally’s report on the Kennedy weekend in New Ross, (An Irishman’s Diary, September 6th), brought back memories of the reopening of the Kennedy Homestead in 2013.

I was fortunate to hear Seamus Heaney read a poem in the presence of a newly unveiled bust of Ted Kennedy.

However, it was another Irish poet that captured the event for me. While examining the exhibition my wife and I stood beside Jean Kennedy Smith in front of a photograph of her brother, Bobby.

She recounted to us that when he was campaigning for presidency of the US, he would alert the massive following press corps that he was about to conclude his speech and signal that it was time to get back on their coaches by saying: “As WB Yeats wrote…” – Yours, etc,

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ENDA CULLEN,

Armagh.