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| Bobby Kennedy. Image source: Wikipedia. |
On this day, 6th June 1968, I was 8 years old and in 3rd class at Carnew National School. Our classroom was a pre-fab building, and our teacher was a Mr Hennessy (what a pity I cannot remember his first name, he had a cool green MG sports car!). There's no way I would have remembered anything about this day except that it was the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot dead in far away Los Angeles.
Around mid morning, a girl from another class suddenly came into our classroom to tell us that Bobby had been shot, but was still alive. We were all old enough to know who he was. I don't recall if our teacher got us to pray for him, or even if we talked about him. About an hour later, the same girl came to our classroom again and told us that he was dead. Breaking news the old-fashioned way! The moment was not lost on us little 8 year olds - it was a tragic but historic interruption of our education on a typical day in school.
Bobby Kennedy was just 42 years old when he was murdered. He may never have become President of the United States - who knows even if he would have won the Democratic nomination or beaten Richard Nixon in the 1968 election. To a lot of us, he will always be simply Jack's younger brother. His toothy black and white image is seared on our brains with an "Only the good die young" message to remind us of who he was.
Fuck you Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, fuck you.
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