Mr. Ambassador:
This is a very special and happy occasion for us, and I understand an annual occasion here at the White House--the celebration of St. Patrick's Day.
We welcome you, and, of course, every successful administration in this country has a bit of Irish in it.
I should point out that in our family, Mrs. Nixon's father was Irish, and on my side my mother was Irish. So between the two you have one. And of course this is the day that we celebrate as her birthday, St. Patrick's Day.
Both of us having visited your country, we feel very close to you and on this day we are so delighted to welcome you here so that you can speak to all Americans who on this day have a little bit of Irish in them.
AMBASSADOR FAY. Mr. President, it is a very great honor and privilege that you do me. May I say a word?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes, sir, more than one word.
AMBASSADOR FAY. Well, we are supposed to be garrulous, Mr. President, but I shall restrain myself, I hope, to a very few words. But I must say something of the privilege and pleasure it is for me to be received by you and Mrs. Nixon on this occasion.
We, too, are happy that the Irish have been able to contribute, we believe, something to this great country. And on this day, the Irish at home join themselves to the Irish in the United States in wishing you and Mrs. Nixon and all the people of this great country our very best wishes.
And in pledge of that, may I have the privilege of presenting to you some shamrock contained in a specially designed and engraved vase made by Waterford Glass in Ireland.
It has an engraving of the White House on it, which, as one of your predecessors, President Kennedy, remembered when he visited us, had been designed by an Irish architect, and he was pleased to remember that the house the architect in question had designed, which is now our National Parliament, is Leinster House in Dublin.
Mr. President, may I ask you to accept this shamrock from me--to put a little in your buttonhole, if I can manage it.
THE PRESIDENT. Does it work?
AMBASSADOR FAY. I hope so.
THE PRESIDENT. Thank you very much. I do want to say, incidentally, that on our last trip--the trip that we just took to Europe--we were unable to include Ireland. But I want you to know that sometime during this administration, Mrs. Nixon and I are hoping that we can pay a visit to Ireland.
AMBASSADOR FAY. Well, Mr. President, you will do us great pleasure and great honor.
May I at the same time take this occasion, as I have been instructed to do by my Government, to say that we wish to invite you quite formally as and when it pleases you to come and visit us. And you are always welcome.
THE PRESIDENT. Thank you.
While we are here, I think this is also a very special occasion in another sense, that I have nominated today the new Ambassador from the United States to Ireland, Mr. John Moore.
Mr. Moore, would you like to come over and join the ranks of the ambassadors, with the consent of the Senate, I trust?
Are you Irish by any chance, Mr. Ambassador?
MR. MOORE. By any chance, indeed, Mr. President. My father, when we were young, told us to say we were 100 percent Americans and 100 percent Irish descent.
THE PRESIDENT. Well, we also have an Irish setter, you see.
Thank you very much.
Note: The President spoke at 11:52 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the White House at a meeting with William P. Fay, Ambassador to the United States from Ireland, and John D. J. Moore of Short Hills, N.J., president of W. R. Grace and Co., U.S. Ambassador-designate to Ireland.
On March 12, 1969, the Fish Room in the West Wing of the White House was renamed the Roosevelt Room.
A White House announcement of the appointment of Mr. Moore is printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 5, p. 428).
Richard Nixon, Remarks at a Meeting With the Irish Ambassador Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239629
