Anniversary of visit of US First Lady Pat Nixon to Mayo
By Tom Gillespie
FIFTY-TWO years ago - Sunday, October 4, 1970 - I stood on the Green in Ballinrobe with photographer, the late Derek Mandel, awaiting the arrival of a very special VIP.
Three helicopters approached and landed on the Green to the applause of the large crowd. On board was the First Lady, Pat Nixon, wife of President Richard Nixon, who was forced to resigned four years later amid the Watergate scandal.
The first Lady was in search of her roots.
Her paternal grandparents, Patrick Sarsfield Ryan and Catherine McHugh, had left for America shortly after marrying in Robeen chapel outside Ballinrobe.
Also present on the Green that day was Brian McKeon who recalled the visit in an article on the Ballinrobe Historical Society website.
He wrote: Mrs. Nixon had accompanied her husband on a trip to Europe and while in Ireland for a few days it was arranged that she would come to Mayo to visit distant cousins still living in the ancestral homeland of her paternal grandparents.
The First Lady and her entourage were warmly greeted by a special committee of Ballinrobe townsfolk and a boys' brass band from Galway. She was presented with flowers and a crystal vase as welcoming gifts.
One of the sons of Patrick and Catherine Ryan, William Ryan, who was born in Connecticut in 1866, was Pat’s Nixon’s father. Born the day before St. Patrick’s Day in 1912, Thelma ‘Pat' Ryan was known to be extremely proud of her Irish roots.
Some of the cousins whom she met with that day were Mrs. Catherine Naughton, Lynch’s Acres, Ballygarries, Mr. Joe Fahey, Robeen, Hollymount, Mrs. P. Cusack, Loughmask, Mrs. J. McTigue, New Street, Ballinrobe, Mr. James Cunningham, Hollymount, and Mrs. Annie Walsh, who led a reception for Mrs. Nixon at Robeen Church.
Her visit included a trip to the Ryan ancestral homestead in Kilvindoney and to Robeen cemetery where her ancestors are buried. It ended with a luncheon that included all of her cousins at Ashford Castle.
On the way back to Ballinrobe for her scheduled departure Mrs. Nixon made stops to greet small crowds who gathered along the roadside to catch a glimpse of the President’s wife.
It has been said that not until Hilary Clinton became First Lady in 1993 did a First Lady travel the globe more than Pat Nixon. And though other First Ladies with Irish roots have visited Ireland, most recently Michele Obama, no other First Lady has made an attempt to connect with their distant Irish relatives as Pat Nixon did on that October day in 1970.
According to Wikipedia, during her more than 30 years in public life, Pat Nixon served as both the Second (1953 to 1961) and First Lady (1969 to 1974).
Born in Ely, Nevada, she grew up with her two brothers in what is now Cerritos, California, graduating from high school in 1929. She attended Fullerton Junior College and later the University of Southern California. She paid for her schooling by working multiple jobs, including pharmacy manager, typist, radiographer, and retail clerk.
In 1940, she married lawyer Richard Nixon and they had two daughters, Tricia and Julie.
Dubbed the ‘Nixon team’, Richard and Pat Nixon campaigned together in his successful Congressional campaigns of 1946 and 1948.
Richard Nixon was elected Vice-President in 1952 alongside General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whereupon Pat became Second Lady. Pat Nixon did much to add substance to the role of the vice-president's wife, insisting on visiting schools, orphanages, hospitals and village markets as she undertook many missions of goodwill across the world.
As First Lady, Pat Nixon promoted a number of charitable causes, including volunteerism. She oversaw the collection of more than 600 pieces of historic art and furnishings for the White House, an acquisition larger than that of any other administration.
She was the most travelled First Lady in US history, a record unsurpassed until 25 years later. She accompanied the President as the First Lady to visit China and the Soviet Union, and was the first president's wife to be officially designated a representative of the United States on her solo trips to Africa and South America, which gained her recognition as 'Madame Ambassador’. She was also the first First Lady to enter a combat zone.
Her tenure as First Lady ended when, after being re-elected in a landslide victory in 1972, President Nixon resigned two years later amid the Watergate scandal.
Her public appearances became increasingly rare later in life. She and her husband settled in San Clemente, California, and later moved to New Jersey.
She suffered two strokes, one in 1976 and another in 1983, and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1992. She died in 1993, aged 81.
Pat Nixon felt that the First Lady should always set a public example of high virtue as a symbol of dignity, but she refused to revel in the trappings of the position.
When considering ideas for a project as First Lady, Pat refused to do (or be) something simply to emulate her predecessor, Lady Bird Johnson. She decided to continue what she called ‘personal diplomacy', which meant traveling and visiting people in other states or other nations.
Although Pat Nixon was a Methodist, she and her husband attended whichever Protestant Church was nearest to their home, especially after moving to Washington.
They attended the Metropolitan Memorial Methodist Church because it sponsored her daughters' Brownie troop, occasional Baptist services with the Reverend Dr. Billy Graham, and Norman Vincent Pwal’s Marble Collegiate Church.