Nixon’s ‘forgotten visit’ to be recalled in documentary

SOME visits everybody remembers. John F Kennedy in 1963, Pope John Paul II in 1979. However, sandwiched in between those was the visit few remember, that of the 37th President of the United States of American, Richard Milhous Nixon.

The man who remains the only president to have resigned from office – following the Watergate scandal – visited the home of his wife’s ancestors in Mayo, his own Quaker ancestors’ graves in Timahoe in Kildare, before visiting Dublin over three days in October of 1970.

An RTÉ documentary, The Forgotten Visit – to be broadcast today – charts the Nixon visit with some of the people who met, caught a glance of, or barely even remember the president on his visit 40 years ago.