Final journey for former first lady Nancy Reagan

There was an echo of Ballyporeen when the former first lady of the United States, Nancy Reagan, was laid to rest beside her husband Ronald in the grounds of his presidential library in California over the weekend.

She had accompanied president Reagan on his homecoming visit to his ancestral Co Tipperary parish on June 3, 1984. A physically frail but extremely gracious woman, she smiled when parish priest Fr John Murphy called her “Missus” and sipped a Carolans Irish cream liqueur in the Ronald Reagan Lounge while her beloved husband enjoyed a pint of Smithwicks.

Her maternal instincts were obvious when she cradled in her arms Catherine Nancy O’Farrell, the infant daughter of John and Mary O’Farrell, who had named their licensed premises after the 40th US President.

Nancy Reagan and her husband were taken aback when they met with Myles Regan, Ardeen, Buttevant, Co Cork, who was the image of Mr Reagan.

“It was amazing how much he and I resembled each other — his eyes and hair, his whole facial structure all resembled mine,” Mr Reagan wrote in his autobiography, An American Life.

Hugh Peskett, the genealogist from Burke’s Peerage who had traced Ronald Reagan’s roots from Tampico in Illinois to Ballyporeen, made him a presentation.

But then Mr Reagan gave Mr Peskett a handwritten note with his name embossed in the top left hand corner and asked him to do some further research to see if he was related to his treasury secretary Don Regan.

He disclosed that Don Regan and himself often joked about their similar names and referred to each other as cousins.

Nancy Reagan, regarded as one of the most powerful and influential first ladies in US history, was taken to her final resting place with a kilted piper playing Danny Boy. The post-funeral reception was held in the Air Force One pavilion, centre point of the hilltop presidential library and museum, north of Los Angeles.

Former president George W Bush and his wife Laura, president Obama’s wife Michelle, and former first lady Hillary Clinton were among those present.

Located beneath one of the wings of the Boeing 707 aircraft that flew Ronald Reagan and six other US presidents around the world from 1973 to 2001 is the pub from Ballyporeen that bears his name. All furnishings including the bar counter and the original external signage were acquired from the O’Farrell family and transported to the presidential library and museum, where it honours his Irish roots.

A framed copy of a letter that Mr Reagan once wrote to John O’Farrell, who died last September, and his wife Mary, is displayed on the wall behind the cash register. “Yes,” he wrote, “John Kennedy has an airport. Johnson has a space centre; but Ronald Reagan proudly has a pub. Now, that’s got flair.”