During the mid-20th Century, the Kennedy family were the most prominent political family in the US. Yet, within only a few decades, the Kennedys had lost a great deal of their influence, with the family being a shell of its former self.
At its height, one Kennedy sat in the White House, another was Attorney General, whilst another sat in the Senate. Today, not a single Kennedy sits in political office – a first since 1946!
This begs the question, what went so wrong for the Kennedys?
Aristocratic Origins
During their heyday, the Kennedy Family were called the “American royal family” by the press. Interestingly, there’s evidence that suggests the Kennedys have royal blood in their veins…
According to genealogist Brian Kennedy (no relation), the modern-day Kennedy family are descended from the Irish O’Kennedy clan (or Ó Cinnéide in Gaelic), who once ruled the Kingdom of Ormond during the Medieval Period.
More specifically, the modern-day Kennedys are descended from the Ó Cinnéide Fionn clan (a cadet branch of the Ó Cinnéide clan) with their progenitor being Diarmaid Ó Cinnéide Fionn, who lived in the mid-16th century.
Just like many other Gaelic clans, the Ó Cinnéide clan as a whole prospered until the Protestant Ascendancy in the 17th century, where the entire Ó Cinnéide clan lost all the land it still held to Protestant English and Scotsmen.
Having lost their land and the social standing that came with it, the Ó Cinnéide Fionn left their ancestral homeland before ending up in Dunganstown, New Ross, County Wexford, in 1740.
The Ó Cinnéide Fionn (eventually anglicized to just O’Kennedy, and later, Kennedy) lived in Dunganstown for several generations, until Patrick Kennedy was born there in 1823.
Coming to America
Born into poverty, Patrick Kennedy tried to make a living for himself. However, when the Irish Potato Famine struck in 1845, Patrick Kennedy was one of millions of Irish people who fled Ireland for the US.
Arriving in East Boston, Massachusetts, Patrick Kennedy (along with every other Irish immigrant at the time) faced persecution, low pay and subpar accommodation, not to mention the relentless anti-Irish sentiment in every newspaper.
Yet, these conditions were still better than those back home in Ireland.
Having courted before immigrating to the US, Patrick Kennedy married Bridget Murphy on September 26 1849 in the Holy Redeemer Church in Boston. Together, the couple would have five children – three girls, two boys.
Due to the near-starvation wages Irish immigrants were paid at the time, both Patrick and Bridget were forced to work to support the family. Despite the odds being stacked against them, the Kennedy family did alright for themselves.
All good things must come to an end, however.
With the first three children the couple had being girls, the Kennedys longed for a boy. In 1854, the couple got their wish, with their fourth child being a boy, who they named John. Sadly, John was a sickly child, and died from cholera in 1855.
Even in spite of this great loss, the Kennedys decided to try again for another boy, which succeeded. A second son, who they named Patrick Joseph, or “P. J.” for short would be born January 14 1858. Unlike his brother, P. J. would be a healthy child.
Ten months after P. J.’s birth, however, Patrick Kennedy died at the tender age of 35.
A Reversal of Fortunes
Although the death of Patrick Kennedy was devastating for the Kennedy family, he left enough money for his wife to purchase the profitable stationary and notions store she’d been working at for years.
Using the profits the store generated, Bridget was able to send her only son, P. J., to school. Despite being the first in his family to have a formal education, P. J. dropped out at the age of 14 to help support his family financially.
Saving as much as possible, P. J. Kennedy soon went into business for himself, buying a saloon in Haymarket Square. The saloon’s central location, combined with P. J.’s acute business sense soon saw the saloon take off.
Capitalizing on his business successes, P. J. soon acquired another saloon, before purchasing a bar inside an upscale East Boston hotel, both of which soon became quite profitable.
Thanks to this, P. J. Kennedy soon became a leading member of the Irish community in Boston, being able to mix comfortably with both the Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite, and the Roman Catholic Irish immigrants.
Seeing this, P. J. Kennedy parlayed his popularity with both Protestants and Catholics alike, to serve in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1884 until 1889, before serving in the state Senate between 1889 and 1895, both times as a Democrat.
By the time of his death in 1929, P. J. Kennedy had expanded his business holdings to include a large stake in a coal company and a similarly large stage in a bank – the Columbia Trust Company.
Enter Joseph P. Kennedy
Whilst serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, P. J. Kennedy met and married Mary Augusta Hickey, the daughter of another prominent Irish-American saloon owner in Boston.
Together, the couple had four children, one of whom died in infancy. The oldest of the Kennedy children was a son, known as Joseph Patrick, who followed in his father’s footsteps and became a prominent businessman in Boston.
In 1913, Joseph P. Kennedy found work at the Columbia Trust Company (the bank his father owned a large stake in) soon becoming the bank president. Eventually, Kennedy parlayed his bank presidency into a job on Wall Street.
After a few years working for another firm, Kennedy established his own Wall Street firm. Using what would today be called insider trading, Kennedy amassed a small fortune during the bull market of the pre-Depression 1920’s.
Having gotten out just before the crash, Kennedy increased his fortune by shorting shares massively, netting a huge profit which he then invested into real estate, entertainment and shipping, soon becoming one of the richest men of his time!
Supporting FDR financially in 1932, FDR repaid Kennedy by making him the first Commissioner of the SEC in 1934. Here, he was tasked with cleaning up Wall Street, and getting rid of many of the practices he’d used to make his fortune.
Despite praise from all sides, Kennedy resigned as SEC Commissioner in 1935. Thanks to his experience running a shipyard, Kennedy became the first Chairman of the US Maritime Commission in 1937.
Kennedy would then become the Ambassador to the UK in 1938, where he frequently came into conflict with Winston Churchill, who disliked Kennedy’s pro-appeasement and somewhat pro-Nazi stances.
Despite having been friends when he became the Ambassador, Kennedy’s friendship with FDR soured after he ran for a third term. This wasn’t because he thought it was bad form (as many others did), but rather because Kennedy wanted to follow FDR into the White House in 1940.
Founding a Dynasty
The Highest Offices in The Land
Continued Public Service
Kennedy Family Today
Prominence in Business
Despite being most famous for their roles as politicians, the Kennedy family have never forgotten how their family became so successful – by being wealthy and successful businessmen.
However, as they’re most famous for their roles as politicians, most of them are both politicians and businessmen.
Currently, the eldest son of Ted Kennedy, Edward Jr., is a partner at New York-based lar firm, Epstein Becker & Green, a disability-oriented law firm.
Beyond that, Bobby Kennedy’s eldest son, Joseph P. Kennedy II, is also a businessman. Having founded the non-profit Citizens Energy Corporation in 1979, Kennedy briefly left the company to focus on his political career.
Despite this, Kennedy returned once he left public office, continuing to run the company to this day, being the driving factor in the company’s heavy investment in renewable energy.
Another one of Bobby Kennedy’s sons, Christopher, is also a businessman. Currently, Christopher serves as the head of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises – the holdings company his grandfather established to hold his various assets.
“The Kennedy Curse”
When talking about the Kennedy family, it’s hard not to talk about the “Kennedy curse” that’s almost as famous as they are.
Called the “Kennedy curse” because so many members of the family died at such young ages, a total of 14 family members, over four generations, have fell victim to the curse.
The first to suffer the curse was JFK’s sister, Rosemary Kennedy, in 1941. Having suffered from a serious loss of oxygen whilst she was being born, Rosemary suffered from a reportedly low IQ, only being able to read Winnie-the-Pooh books at 15 years old.
Upon becoming an adult, Rosemary began to suffer seizures and violent mood swings too. Hoping to fix it, Joseph P. Kennedy arranged for her to have a lobotomy. Whilst she didn’t die, the lobotomy left her unable to walk and speak coherently for the rest of her life.
The first death would happen during WWII. In 1944, Joe Kennedy Jr. (JFK’s older brother) was flying a top-secret mission over the North Sea, when bombs inside the aircraft he was flying detonated prematurely, killing Joe Jr. instantly.
Four years later, in 1948, JFK’s younger sister, Kathleen, died in a plane crash.
Flying to the French Riviera for a vacation, her plane flew into a storm, where it entered a nosedive. Attempting to recover from the dive, the pilot inadvertently caused the plane to breakup mid-flight, before crashing to the ground, killing everyone immediately.
Most famously, JFK himself would be assassinated in Dallas on November 22 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald, whilst his brother, Bobby Kennedy, was assassinated on June 6 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan.
Later generations have seen deaths from drug overdoses (David in 1984, and Saoirse Kennedy Hill in 2019), skiing accidents (Michael in 1997) and more plane crashes (JFK Jr., and his wife, Carolyn, in 1999).
On a more natural note, the Kennedy curse has also seen two heart attacks (Kara Kennedy and Christopher Kennedy Lawford in 2011 and 2018).
More recently, 2020 saw the disappearance, and later death, of former Obama Administration aide, Maeve Kennedy McKean, and her eight-year-old son, Gideon.
Similarly a part of the curse, then Senator Ted Kennedy (JFK’s youngest brother) nearly died in his own plane crash in 1964. Whilst the pilot and Ted’s legislative aide died in the crash, Ted himself survived, suffering a back injury, internal bleeding and a punctured lung.
Enduring Legacy
Although the family is most important legacy has been the policies implemented by JFK and Bobby Kennedy, the Kennedy family has left a much larger impact than just that…
Perhaps the largest legacy the Kennedys can claim to have left is the strong UK-US relationship, especially so between British prime ministers and US presidents.
Not wanting to talk to FDR through Joseph P. Kennedy (then the US Ambassador to the UK) because he despised Kennedy’s pessimistic view of Britain’s chances fighting Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill sought to go around Kennedy and talk to FDR directly.
As it would happen, FDR similarly despised Kennedy, with both leaders bonding over that to begin with. For security reasons, a direct line between 10 Downing Street and the White House was established, so the pair could talk directly at any hour.
Despite several prime ministers and presidents coming and going, the direct line between both leaders is still there. Even today, the relationship between both leaders goes beyond politics, and is genuinely a friendship.
Without the Kennedys, it’s easy to see how the special relationship would never have come to be!
In 1951, owing to her being the mother of the first Catholic US President and her philanthropy, Pope Pius XII raised Rose Kennedy to the position of Papal Countess, becoming only the sixth American woman to be granted such an honor.
Due in large part to the large role the Kennedy family played in American politics, there are literally thousands of places named after various members of the family – mainly JFK – including schools, lakes, mountains, streets and buildings.
Yet, it’s not just in the US where there are places named after the family.
In the Solomon Islands, one of the islands is named “Kennedy Island” in JFK’s honor, whilst in Brazil, you can find two municipalities named in his honor. In Beirut, Lebanon, you can find “Rue John Kennedy” similarly named in his honor.
Beyond things named in JFK’s honor, there’s also a bridge in Ireland (the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge) and a bridge in New York City (Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge) named after their respective family members.
What do you think of the Kennedy Family? Are they going to be relegated to the pages of history, or are they about to stage a comeback? Tell me in the comments!
