Irishmen set tenor as America mourns Reagan

WASHINGTON’S National Cathedral will resound to the voices of three Irish tenors today.

At the request of Nancy Reagan, Dubliner Ronan Tynan will lead the singing at Ronald Reagan’s funeral with hymns requested by the former US First Lady. He will sing Ave Maria and Amazing Grace, two of Reagan’s favourites.

His former partners in the Irish Tenors, Anthony Kearns and Finbar Wright, have also been asked to sing at the funeral service.

As Washington prepares to roll out the black carpet for the first presidential state funeral in three decades, cathedral musicians and liturgists were last night putting the finishing touches on a ceremony that is rich in pageantry and patriotism.

The funeral service will combine a solemn Episcopal Church liturgy with personal touches chosen by Reagan’s family. Presiding over the service will be former Senator John Danforth of Missouri, who is an ordained Episcopal priest.

Each stage of the funeral will be attended by music from a military band. Aside from hymns, traditional selections include Hail to the Chief, graveside Taps and Ruffles and Flourishes.

The ruffle on drums and the flourish on bugles are sounded together, up to four times depending on the prominence of the deceased. Reagan, as all presidents, will get four ruffles and flourishes.

Meanwhile, saddened by Reagan’s death and moved by his life, America yesterday continued to mourn the death of one of the most influential and colourful presidents of the 20th century.

His death has caused a wave of nostalgia not just in the US but also in Reagan’s ancestral home of Ballyporeen in Co Tipperary.

President George W Bush has declared today a national day of mourning, and the federal government is closed in honour of Reagan.

The body of the 40th president of the US was carried on a horse-drawn carriage down Constitution Avenue to the US Capitol. It was followed by a riderless black horse, with a pair of Mr Reagan’s favourite boots turned backward in the stirrups, symbolising the death of a military leader.

It is expected to be the most emotional state occasion in Washington since the funeral of John F Kennedy in 1963 and is being compared in political significance with the funeral in 1944 of Franklin D Roosevelt, the last president to have engineered a similar revolution in US politics.