25th Anniversary of Reagan visit

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the visit by President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy to Ireland between June 1 and June 4 1984. The visit was significant in many ways - it was the first visit to Ireland by a serving US President since the visit by Richard Nixon in October 1970 and it re-established the strong Irish connection with the US Presidency (that had been broken with the death of JFK in 1963) at a time when Ireland was going into a deep recession.

It was against this background that the Presidential visit was planned for June 1 to June 4 1984. The trip was to be the start of a ten day visit to Europe that included an economic summit in London and attending the ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of the Normandy Landings during World War II.

Air Force 1 landed at Shannon on June 1 1984 and was met by the Irish President Patrick Hillery who along with the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Garrett Fitzgerald welcomed President and Mrs. Reagan to Ireland.

During his speech on arrival, President Reagan described his visit as a 'mission to strengthen ties of friendship and cooperation among the world's leading democracies'. The four day visit included visiting Galway's University, UCG, where Reagan was conferred with an honourary doctorate, a trip to Ballyporeen on the Cork / Limerick / Tipperary border to visit his ancestral home and finally a visit to Dublin where he addressed Dail Eireann, the Irish Parliament.

From an aviation point of view times were very different, long before 9-11 changed everyone's lives. Access to photograph aircraft was difficult by 1984's standards but immeasurably better than the situation today with significantly higher levels of security. A long lens through the chicken wire back then was still 'ok'  and this was after the attempt on Reagan's life which occured 69 days into his Presidency.

The build up to the visit began many weeks before hand but ended very quickly after the visit. Malcolm Nason has very kindly researched the 'airlift' through his slide library and the listing below gives an indication of the extent and variety of aircraft which visited Shannon in connection with the visit.

Pictured above are at top VH-3D 159357 of the USMC 'Nighthawk 2' taken close to the then SRS hangar and at bottom VC-137C 62-6000 'Air Force 1' parked on taxiway 11 during the visit.

 30-Mar        61-0651 T.39A USAF    18-Apr        77-22950 C.12A U.S. ARMY    18-May        69-0019 C.5A USAF    20-May        65-0242 C.141B USAF    22-May        64-0633 C.141B USAF    28-May        78-23127 C.12C U.S. ARMY    29-May        64-0626 C.141B USAF     159357 VH3D USMC  "Nighthawk 2"     159359 VH3D USMC  "Nighthawk 1"     68-10924 CH53C USAF     68-10928 CH53C USAF     68-10932 CH53C USAF    30-May        66-8304 C.5A USAF    31-May        78-23128 C.12C US ARMY     G-BISZ S76 BRISTOW/IRISH HELICOPTERS    01-Jun        G-DFIN SA365N IRISH HELICOPTERS     238 BAE125 IAAC     214 ALOUETTE 3 IAAC     62-6000 VC137C USAF     72-7000 VC137C USAF    02-Jun        N731PA B747 PAN AM     63-7885 C.130E USAF    225, 226, 228 SF260W IAAC  probably arrived 1/6.     G-BWFC CHINOOK BRITISH A/W     G-BISR CHINOOK BRITISH A/W     G-BKFN BELL 214ST BCAL     G-BFPF S61N BCAL     G-BEJL S61N BRITISH A/W     G-BEWL S61N BRITISH A/W     G-BFFJ S61N BRITISH A/W    04-Jun        63-8078 C.141B USAF    05-Jun        70-0456 C.5A USAF     66-0178 C.141B USAF     66-0202 C.141B USAF