USS Ronald Reagan salutes former American president’s ancestral home

THE new aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan, has saluted Ballyporeen, the ancestral home of the former American president whose name it proudly bears.

US vice president Dick Cheney performed the commissioning ceremony of the $4.5 billion dollar nuclear powered carrier last July, but it had earlier made contact with the South Tipperary parish.

The carrier’s Command Master Chief Robert T Conklin wrote to South Tipperary County Council asking if a relationship could be established with the former president’s ancestral place and the USS Ronald Reagan.