‘The First Kennedys’ explores a dynasty’s humble Irish roots

By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Think of the Kennedys and some elitist attributes come to mind: wealth, power, influence, elegance. But the great-grandparents of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy possessed none of those things. And the family’s improbable journey from obscurity in Ireland to eventual celebrity in the U.S. offers hope to America’s latest arrivals from Afghanistan, Ukraine and beyond. In a new book, “The First Kennedys,” author Neal Thompson explores the little-known stories of Bridget Murphy Kennedy and Patrick Kennedy. Both independently fled famine in their homeland in the mid-1800s, fell in love in fiercely anti-immigrant Boston, and paved the way for the Kennedy political dynasty that followed.