Dynasty Of Grief And Greatness

The tragic death of Saoirse Kennedy Hill has once again raised the spectre of a Kennedy curse. William Langley examines the lives and deaths of a family whose heartbreaks and triumphs have become legend around the world.

On the evening of Friday, August 2, some 30 members of the Kennedy family gathered around a firepit in the grounds of their famous compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. On the Saturday and Sunday they sailed and swam in the blue waters off Cape Cod, and on the Monday they went to a funeral.

Saoirse Kennedy Hill was just 22, beautiful, blonde, idealistic, and like so many of her family, destined to die young. She was the granddaughter of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, himself killed by an assassin at the age of 42, and a favourite of RFK’s 91-year-old widow, Ethel, the current Kennedy matriarch, in whose beachfront house she was staying. On the morning of August 1, Saoirse, having failed to appear for breakfast, was discovered dead in her bedroom from an apparent drug overdose.

Every new tragedy to befall the Kennedys revives talk of the “curse” that supposedly stalks them, feeding the fascination they attract, and raising questions about the very public, but perilous, nature of their lives. In their extraordinary journey from poor beginnings in Ireland to become America’s unofficial royal family, they have never veered far from scandal, controversy and misfortune.

Beer and ballads around the fire struck many as a peculiar way to mourn, but as long-time Kennedy friend and spokesman Brian O’Connor explained, the family holds dear to its own traditions, and wanted the weekend gathering to reflect the “joy and exuberance” of Saoirse’s short life.