Big security clamp for European tour

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 10

Big security clamp for European tour

NZPA-PA Dublin A huge Irish-American security operation will swing into operation today when President Ronald Reagan begins a three-day trip to the Irish Republic, the first country on his European tour. Mr Reagan, said by genealogists to be from a family that emigrated 140 years ago from the County Tipperary village of Ballyporeen, is returning to his roots. He plans to follow a trail blazed by thousands of ancestor-hunting Americans whose forebears left in the face of the Irish famine. Mr Reagan with his wife,

Nancy, and a high-level American party, including the Secretary of State, Mr George Shultz, are due to fly into Shannon Airport today. The President, guarded by a range of anti-terrorist devices that include sur-face-to-air missiles, will attend official events in Dublin and Galway as well as Ballyporeen. Organisations pledged to oppose United States policies in Central America and on the nuclear issue are planning demonstrations, and there have been calls for Mr Reagan to lend his support to demands for a united Ireland.

The President is expected to ignore the demonstrations and stick to an assurance not to get involved in the Ulster issue. He is due to be granted an honorary degree in Galway, to receive a number of tributes in Ballyporeeen, and to meet the Irish Prime Minister, Dr Garrett FitzGerald, in Dublin before addressing a specially convened joint session of the Irish Houses of Parliament. He also plans to visit a farmhouse in County Mayo which was a location for the film “The Quiet Man” shot 35 years ago with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.