rain extinguished the permanent flame and flooding of electrical equipment disabled the spark igniter. In both cases the flame was quickly relit manually. The Emigrant Flame In 2013, the eternal flame was shared for the first time in its history. On June 18, a U.S. Army honor guard accompanied Irish Minister of State Paul Kehoe, T.D., in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Kennedy grave site. An Irish Army officer, accompanied by an Irish Army honor guard, lit a lamp in a metal burner from the eternal flame. (The lamp and burner were created by the Bullfinch company, which also designed the torches for the 2012 Summer Olympics torch relay.) The "spark" traveled back to Ireland aboard a special Aer Lingus flight, accompanied by Kehoe, Irish Army personnel, and a delegation from the New Ross Town Council. The "spark" arrived at Dublin Airport on June 20, where Kehoe transferred the flame to Colonel Brendan Delaney. Delaney transferred the flame to officers of the Irish Naval Service. The flame was taken by the Naval vessel , which traversed the Irish Sea and sailed up the River Barrow to New Ross (the town which John F. Kennedy's great-grandfather emigrated from in 1848). On June 22, several Irish Special Olympians carried the flame from the Orla to a ceremony at the Kennedy Homestead. Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Jean Kennedy Smith, and Caroline Kennedy used the burner to jointly light an "Emigrant Flame" in an iron globe to mark the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's trip to Ireland. The Emigrant Flame is now the centerpiece of the expanded homestead visitor center. Four days later, the flame went out, but was reignited with fire from the miner's lamps that were lit at Arlington. Cultural influence Immediately after Kennedy's burial, the eternal flame was being visited by 50,000 people per day. More than 16 million people visited the site in its first three years. In 1971, the grave attracted more than 7 million people. The presence of the grave also boosted attendance at Arlington National Cemetery. Kennedy's funeral had been televised live, with 93 percent of all American homes watching. Satellites beamed the proceedings to another 23 countries, where another 600 million viewers watched. The television coverage transformed Arlington National Cemetery from a quiet veterans' cemetery into one of the Washington area's most popular tourist attractions. Average yearly attendance rose from 1 million people in 1962 to 9 million