Timeless more than 60 years later – Grace Kelly in 1954 MGM photo shoot (Gene Lester) for St. Patrick’s Day
Saint Patrick’s Day in Monaco
To celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day and reassert the ties of friendship between Ireland and the Principality of Monaco, the facade of the Palace of Monaco has been known to be lit up in green, the color symbolic of this Christian Feast. Activities in the city vary during the month of March but there is an Irish connection in town that is accessible year around.
Princess Grace Irish Library
The Princess Grace Irish Library is such a gem that the New York Times classified it as the number one stop in its “36 hours in Monaco” travel recommendations. It stated: “You can get close to her spirit in a second-story suite known as the Princess Grace Irish Library. Her personal Irish book collection is here, as is her sheet music, a scrapbook of news clippings about her, floral napkins she designed for Springmaid, the chairs from the dining room of her apartment in Paris and the sewing box of her mother.”
Grace Kelly Irish Heritage
Grace Kelly’s link with Ireland stems from Grace’s grandfather, John Peter Kelly, who was a bricklayer from Newport in County Mayo. He left Ireland in 1887 and went to Philadelphia, where he founded one of the leading construction companies and made his family’s fortune.
Always proud of her Irish heritage, Princess Grace visited Ireland on three occasions in 1961, 1976 and 1979. During her first trip, she visited the old cottage where her grandfather had lived, Drimulra (which she later purchased).
PS. The Givenchy suit in this black and white video is indeed green – and you can see it in color as Princess Grace wore it when she had lunch with JFK at the White House in 1961. Although green was not her favorite color, she did consider it lucky.
Grace’s Green Tweed wardrobe
In 1963, Princess Grace narrated an American television special called “A Look at Monaco.” One of the ensembles she chose for the November 1962 filming was a suit designed by Balenciaga. The suit was crafted from hand-woven green tweed she had received as a gift in Clifden, Connemara, on the state visit to Ireland in June of 1961.
“A Look at Monaco” was CBS’s only color broadcast of the 1962-1963 television season and was designed mainly to promote tourism in Monaco. Princess Grace’s Irish tweed Balenciaga suit remains classic.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
