1964-65 New York World's Fair Groundbreaking and Dedication Booklets

JUNE 28, 1963

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COMMEMORATION

STONE

CEREMONY

AT THE NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1964-1965

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he Pavilion of Ireland will be enclosed by a wall faced with

slabs of native Irish stone. Ireland's historical, cultural

and economic aspects will be featured in the exhibit,

Mr. Andrew Devane, of Robinson, Keefe & Devane of Dublin,
is the architect; Mr, George Nelson is architect and designer

in New York; and fames King and Son, Inc. are contractors.

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Excerpts from transcription of remarks made
by Irish and World's Fair officials at the
commemoration stone ceremony for the Pavilion
of Ireland at the New York World's Fair, June
28. 1963.

AMBASSADOR RICHARD C. PATTERSON, JR.
[Chief of Protocol]: Mr, Consul General, President
Moses, Governor Poletti, distinguished guests, and ladies
and gentlemen. A most happy and auspicious occasion
brings us together on this site, in the city where the
President of Ireland was born. We are here to lay the
commemoration stone of the Irish Pavilion,

I have great pleasure in presenting our first speaker.
The Honorable Charles Poletti, former governor of the
State of New York, now vice president for International
Affairsof the World's Fair.

GOVERNOR POLETTI: Ambassador Patterson, Con-
sul General O'Brien, President Moses, Douglas Beaton,
Father O'Callaghan and friends. We are happy to be
here on this auspicious day. We are glad that the Irish
Pavilion is going to emphasize the connection between
Ireland and the United States, and I know that the Irish
Pavilion is going to be very popular. We look forward
to the National Day that the Irish have picked; you

know, here at the World's Fair we're going to have one
day that's going to be devoted exclusively to each inter-
national participant, and Ireland has selected May 16.
They couldn't pick St. Patrick's Day, because we don't
open until April 22; so they picked May 16. All of you
that have Irish in you know that May 16 is the day that
commemorates St. Brendan the Navigator, So here we'll
be on May 16, celebrating St. Brendan's Day. We are
all happy that were going to have this Irish Pavilion.

In closing, I want to say that we of the World's Fair
are most grateful to all the people who have worked so
hard in obtaining an Irish Pavilion at the World's Fair.
I'm thinking of people who are connected with the Fair,
wrho went over to Ireland on our delegation — Tom
Deegan and others, and Sean Keating, who felt so strong
that Ireland had to be here that he wrent over there nor
once, but twice. Thank you very much.

AMBASSADOR PATTERSON: Thank you very
much, Governor Poletti* Before introducing the next
speaker, I'd like to introduce the man the governor just
mentioned, who's done so much to help bring Ireland
into this Fair, a great New Yorker, Sean Keating. He's
the Regional Director for all Post Offices in New York
State, and is always a great help to Mr. Moses and the
rest of us. Sean, come up and let them take a look at you.

MR. SEAN KEATING: Ambassador Patterson, Com-
missioner Moses, Governor Poletti, Mr. O'Brien, Father
O'Callaghan, distinguished guests. This is really a sur-

1963 New York World's Feir 1964*1965 Corporolion

- —

The Honorable John O'Brien, Consul General of

Ireland, laying the commemoration stone for the Pavilion

of Ireland; looking on are: (left to right) Mr. Robert Moses,

president of the Fair; Governor Charles Poletti, vice

president in charge of the International Division of the

Fair; and Mr. Sean Keating, Regional Director,

U. S. Post Office Department.

prise, but a Cork man in front of a microphone is always
an oratorical threat. I had no expectation of having to say
anything. I just want to say thanks to Commissioner
Moses and Governor Poletti for giving me the oppor-
tunity- to go to Ireland to try and induce the Irish Gov-
ernment to participate in the Fair, I got wonderful
cooperation from the Irish Government, I hope that all
the promises I made and all the inducements I offered
will bear fruit. And I am sure the Irish Government's
building will be a credit to the Irish nation, and a credit
to the Fair Corporation. Thank you very much.

AMBASSADOR PATTERSON: Now I'd like to call
on the Very Reverend Donal O'Callaghan, Prior of the
Carmelite Order in New York.

THE VERY REVEREND DONAL O'CALLA-
GHAN: Commissioner Patterson, Mr. Moses, Mr.
Poletti, Mr. Keating, Your Excellency, The Consul Gen-
eral of Ireland, and friends of Ireland. We are all very
happy to be here today, to see Ireland participating in the
World's Fair, We are very happy for many reasons, and
happy because an Irish nation is here to take its place
among the other nations in this great demonstration. It
would be our desire to greet New York as an unparti-
tioned Irish nation, but in good time this will come.
America has been good to our people ; and we, thanks be
to God, have been loyal to America, May that link which

has always bound the ancestral land of our fathers with

America live on; may the two nations, and all of the

other nations, stand together for the things that we

believe in, the things that made America great. Our

prayer is the prayer of Lincoln, not only for America or

for Ireland, but for all free peoples, that these nations

that believe as we do, under God, may not perish from

the face of the earth.

AMBASSADOR PATTERSON: Our next speaker is

a Yale man, he's an Oxford man, and he's a Columbia

man. He received high honors from all three colleges. He

has lectured in many, many universities, and he has had

a brilliant career in public service. Ladies, and gentlemen,

I have the high honor to present The Honorable Robert

Moses, president of the New York World's Fair.

MR. ROBERT MOSES: John O'Brien and friends.
I am happy to be here with two or three other extinct
volcanoes. There's Charlie Poletti, who's been a governor
of New York, military governor of Rome and a Supreme
Court judge, and who got two degrees at Harvard; and
Dick Patterson who served abroad in a number of Amer-
ican Embassies.

In any event, it makes me think a little bit about Gov-
ernor Smith, who was my Gamaliel. I grew up at his
knee, so to speak. The Governor told me that wrhen he
was a small boy downtown at St. James Parish, there was

The Honorable John O'Brien presenting to

Mr. Robert Moses

a claret decanter of Waterjord cut glass.

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a parish priest there who wanted to make an orator out
of him. He figured that if he was going into public life,
he'd better study oratory and listen to the prind]
speakers of the time. So he listened to all of them. One
of the great orators of the time, greatly admired by Gov-
ernor Smith, was Bert Cochran, who was a congressman
and a distinguished lawyer; and Smith learned many of
his orations by heart.

I remember there was a series of talks that Bert Cochran
gave called "Who is the Happy Man?" In one of them
he asked whether the public servant was a happy man,
and he, Bert Cochran, said: "Far from it. When the
scepter of power drops from his nerveless fingers, he is
condemned to an isolation the more unbearable because
o? the adulation to winch he has become accustomed.

Now that's what happened to us — Charlie, Dick and
me. We don't get so much adulation any more, but we
are the happy men, and certainly we are happy on this
occasion. We are happy to have Ireland here, and Im
particularly happy to learn that the Irish exhibit is going
to deal not only with the glories of the Irish people in
the past, not only with culture and the language — but
also will describe today and tomorrow — what Ireland is
doing and what it is aiming for.

That's what we want, because when you come here,

i are in competition with all the countries of the world.
We like to call it a kind of Olympics* — the best man
wins. We want people to come in and show everything

they've got. That's what the Irish are going to do, and
they couldn't be more welcome. I hope that John O'Brien
and his associates will call upon us for anything that we
can do.

AMBASSADOR PATTERSON: Thank you. Presi-
dent Moses. The last speaker is the distinguished Consul
General from Ireland to New York, The Honorable John
O'Brien.

THE HONORABLE JOHN O'BRIEN, CONSUL
GENERAL OF IRELAND: Thank you, Ambassador
Patterson, and thank you also Governor Poletti, for your
very kind remarks. Honorable Robert Moses, distin-
guished guests, colleagues and fellow countrymen. I am
sure you will agree with me that to an Irish representative,
more than to most, the very pleasant task of officiating at
the laying of a commemoration stone of his national pa-
vilion at the New York World's Fair seems quite natural
and fitting.

In view of the unique position occupied by our coun-
trymen in the life of this great City and State of New
York, and throughout the United States, it seems hardly
necessary to say that we are all extremely proud of the
outstanding contributions which our Irish emigrants and
their descendants have made to the development of this
great country- of yours over the years. And as has been
remarked twice already, a particularly felicitous event is
raking place today in the capital city of Ireland, President
John Fitzgerald Kennedy is at this moment the guest of

the President of Ireland, at Arus an Uachtarain which is
the President's residence in Dublin — the state dinner
timed for 8:30 and as Dublin is five hours ahead of New
York time, the distinguished guests should just about now
be seated.

It was also a proud occasion for the Irish people when
President Kennedy, who was greeted by President
de Valera yesterday as the "distinguished scion of our
race who has won first place amongst his fellow country-
men/' addressed both Houses of the Irish Parliament
earlier today and later received the Freedom of the City
of Dublin, as well as honorary degrees from the National
University of Ireland and from Trinity College, Dublin.

With regard to our exhibit at the Fair, while the build-
ing itself will be comparatively unpretentious, our aim
is that the overall presentation will give a balanced pic-
ture of the cultural, historical and economic features of
the country, and of progress and achievements in the
agricultural and industrial spheres in modern Ireland.
In view of the rather false picture of our country which
is, unfortunately, too often projected abroad, it is hoped
that the Irish display will help in presenting a true image
of a people whose traditions extend deep into the past,
but who are at the same time facing with confidence and
self-assurance the challenge of the modern world.

I should like to express to the president of the Fair, The
Honorable Robert Moses, to Governor Poletti, to Mr.
Beaton and to their colleagues on the World's Fair staff,

our deep appreciation of the courtesy and cooperation
which they have always shown in our dealings with them.
Speaking of your distinguished president, Robert Moses,
I might mention at this stage that I was most pleasantly
surprised in the course of a recent conversation with him,
to discover that, despite the multifarious activities which
have engaged his attention over many years of dynamic
public service, he still managed to find time to study
some of the writings of our greatest Irish authors
and playwrights, whose works he has analyzed and re-
viewed from time to time. I am delighted to be able to
reveal to you this intriguing facet of his many-sided
activities, and while it augurs well for our continued co-
operation in problems relating to the Fair, we shall, of
course, also have to be very careful to insure that our
exhibit will be particularly well-presented, subject as it
will be to the scrutiny of a president who knows much
more about Ireland than any of us had suspected.

Finally I have the privilege of reading to you the fol-
lowing message from The Honorable John Lynch, Minis-
ter for Industry and Commerce in Ireland: I am sure
that the Government's decision to present an exhibit at
the Fair will be welcomed by the large population in
New York and in the United States as a whole. Ireland's
display will convey to those people in America who are
not familiar with our country some of the traditions and
achievements of which we are justifiably proud. I wish
the Irish exhibit and the Fair every success

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THE PAVILION OF IRELAND

HON, JOHN M. LYNCH, Minister for Industry and Commerce
World's Fair Committee for the Pavilion of Ireland
HON. JOHN O'BRIEN, Consul General of Ireland

NEW YORK

WORLD'S FAIR

1964-1965
m+»*m~** %$»**»»** COR PORATION

Flushing 52, N.Y. Tel. 212-WF 4-1964

ROBERT MOSES, President

THOMAS J. DEEGAN, JR., Chairman of the Executive Committee

WILLIAM E. POTTER, Executive Vice President

CHARLES POLETTI, Vice President, international Affairs and Exhibits

STUART CONSTABLE, Vice President, Operations

WILLIAM BERNS, Vice President, Communications and Public Relations

ERWIN WITT, Compfro//er

MARTIN STONE, Director of Industrial Section

GUY F. TOZZOLI, (Port of New York Authority) Transportation Section

ERNESTINE R. HAIG, Secretary of the Corporation and
Assistant to the President

WILLIAM WHIPPLE, JR., Chief Engineer

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