Reagan’s ‘native home’ bids poignant and prayer-filled farewell to its most famous son

THE people of Ballyporeen prayed for former US President Ronald Reagan last night in the parish church where he and his wife Nancy bowed their heads in homage 20 years ago.

His visit to the Church of the Assumption, which stands on the site of an old thatched building where his great-grandfather, Michael, was baptised 174 years ago, brought tears to his eyes.

But while there was sadness at the passing of the 40th president of the US, his long life was also celebrated by the South Tipperary parish that he referred to as home.

Ballyporeen parish priest Fr Joe Flynn, who celebrated mass, told the attendance they were gathered to sympathise with the Reagan family and the American people at the loss of their much loved former president and to share again some of their memories of his 1984 visit.

He said Mr Reagan was so impressed with the natural beauty of the area and the friendly welcome he was accorded that he declared there was not a place on the planet he would rather claim as his roots than Ballyporeen.

Fr Flynn, who said Ballyporeen meant a lot to Mr Reagan, stressed that the community greatly appreciated the visit he made to his ancestral home.

He thanked him for his efforts in providing all with a safer world, a more prosperous world and a far better world. "May he rest in peace in his beloved California," he said.

The book containing the baptismal record of Mr Reagan's great-grandfather was on a table beside the altar during the Mass.

And the gifts in the Offertory procession included a folded Stars and Stripes flag and a wreath from Ballyporeen which is to be sent to the US embassy in Dublin.

Members of the community council participated in the procession and readings. Among the congregation were John and Mary O'Farrell, who named their lounge bar after Ronald Reagan, former South Tipperary county councillor, Con Donovan, who was one of those who formally welcomed him to his ancestral parish and Martin Neville, then as now chairman of the community council.

Flags flew at half mast outside the Ronald Reagan Centre, where he unveiled a marble plaque during his visit, and people signed a book of condolence.

Mr Reagan, whose roots-finding trip made Ballyporeen widely known, had hoped to make another visit to the parish during his retirement.

He stated in a letter to the O'Farrells in 1994 that he and Nancy looked forward with great satisfaction to the day they might return to the pub.

He hinted they would raise their glasses in a toast to the friendship between the Irish and American people and to the memories of days gone by.

It was a friendly letter filled with good humour, hope and wonderful memories. But in retrospect it was to be his farewell to the people of Ballyporeen.

Soon afterwards Mr Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

And the lines of a ballad he quoted in his speech at the end of his visit all those years ago took on a poignancy of their own last night as his ancestral place bade him goodbye "I'll never more roam from my own native home, in Tipperary so far away."