PHOTOGRAPHER Stan Shields’ tale of how he got up close and personal with US President JF Kennedy during JFK’s visit to Galway months before his assassination will be featured on BBC Television this week.

The Coast series on BBC Two turns its attention to the west coast of Ireland from Galway to Donegal tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8pm.

On the programme, presenter Neil Oliver meets Stan Shields, who recalls the day when, just five months before President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, he was riding in an open top limo through the crowded streets of Galway.

For Stan, it was one of his first assignments as a photographer with the Connacht Tribune and he tells how he managed to get close enough to the President to talk him into the perfect snap.

Also on the programme, radio experts in Clifden recreate century-old technology that Marconi developed to send the first commercial wireless messages across the Atlantic.