The Visit

The frantic preparations for the visit of John Fitzgerald Kennedy to his hometown in Ireland are largely seen through the eyes of Martin Moroney and Eileen Blayney who are beginning to fall in love. The Mayor of the town, New Ross, has to use all of his considerable skills to keep a sense of order and decorum. He knows that the eyes of the world will be on them. An aggressive CIA advance party causes much grief and forces the Town Council to change its plans for 'security' reasons. The events are keenly observed by Martin and Eileen who "come of age" against the background of the visit. In a sense, the town itself begins to come of age. The world's press begins to arrive. Four days before the visit a man checks into the local hotel and registers under the name of L. H. Oswald. Despite many difficulties, the visit is an outstanding success. Like the return of Ulysses, it is the stuff of myth. Five months later, JFK is assassinated in Dallas. The town goes into mourning and Martin and Eileen are forced to confront newly-awakened demons. Michael G. Casey is an Irish national, married with three sons. He was educated in New Ross, Dublin (UCD) and Cambridge University where he earned a Ph. D. He worked mainly in the Irish public sector but also in Cambridge and Washington D. C. where he had strong working relationships with Canadians and the peoples of the Caribbean Basin. He has published a novel, Come Home, Robbie, a book of non-fiction, Ireland's Malaise, and an award-winning chapbook of short fiction, Treadmill. The first of his poetry collections, Frescoes of Assisi, is in press. Several of his individual short stories and poems have won awards, international and domestic. He has published articles and essays in the Irish Times and Sunday Times as well as other journals. Two of his full-length plays have been performed by The Umbrella Theatre Company on stage in Dublin, as well as eight short plays (one on radio). A one-act play was recently performed in the Henrik Ibsen Museum, Oslo, Norway.