Other descendants of Joseph and Rose Kennedy have been lawyers, authors, and activists on behalf of those with physical and intellectual disabilities.

In 1546, their progenitor Diarmaid Ó Cinnéide Fionn became the owner of Knigh Castle, located close to what is today Puckane, County Tipperary.

Their oldest was Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy Sr.,[4] a businessman who amassed a private fortune in banking and securities trading, which he further expanded by investing in filmmaking and real estate.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was named Papal Countess of the Holy Roman Church by Pope Pius XII in 1951 in recognition of her "exemplary motherhood and many charitable works.

Joseph Jr. was elected as a Massachusetts delegate to the 1940 Democratic National Convention and enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the United States entered World War II.

Joseph Sr.'s desire to see the family involved in politics and government then focused on John, who had considered a career as a journalist, having authored a book (Why England Slept) and done some reporting for Hearst Newspapers.

The Kennedy administration's accomplishments include the Alliance for Progress with Latin America, the establishment of the Peace Corps, a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution ending the poll tax, the continuation of the Apollo spaceflight program with the goal of landing a man on the Moon, and the introduction of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to Congress (signed into law by Kennedy's successor Lyndon B.

In the same year, Joseph P. Kennedy III was named by President Biden as U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland.

Robert Jr.'s campaign drew controversy among other family members, who publicly spoke out against him mainly due to his anti-vaccine views, instead endorsing President Joe Biden.

On November 14, 2024, Trump nominated him to be United States Secretary of Health and Human Services for his cabinet.

The only exception was the period between John F. Kennedy's resignation from the Senate on December 22, 1960, and his assumption of the office of President on January 20, 1961.

The crest is an armored hand holding four arrows between two olive branches, elements taken from the coat of arms of the United States of America and also symbolic of Kennedy and his brothers.