The death last weekend of President Ronald Reagan brought back some happy memories of Mr. Reagan's surprise 1983 visit to Dorchester.

It was during his third year in office that the President came to Boston for several events. On February 9, 1983, Reagan toured the OIC computer training program in Roxbury. Leaving that location at about 2 p.m., the Presidential motorcade cruised over the roads to Cedar Grove and, much to everyone's surprise, the President dropped in for a beer and a chat at the Eire Pub.

Word quickly flashed around town and the news media helped to fill the small barroom, but it turned into more than a quick political "photo op," as Mr. Reagan stayed and greeted all comers.

Current Eire Pub owner John Stenson and bartender Martin Nicholson were on duty that day, and several momentoes of the event still adorn the walls of the pub. Until that day, the Eire was known as a "gentlemen's prestige bar"; in the wake of the Reagan visit, and a later one during the 1992 campaign by candidate Bill Clinton, the Eire now carries the moniker "Presidential Choice."

That 1983 visit was surely a surprise to the public and the media, but it was the culmination of a long-hoped-for event for the late Eire Pub owner Tom Stenson. In fact, Reagan's visit was the fulfillment of a promise made months earlier by a former Dorchester man who was an aide to the President.

That man was Ed Hickey, a Cedar Grove native who was born and raised just around the corner on Ely Road. Hickey had pursued a career in the private security business, and when Reagan was elected Governor of California, he chose Hickey as his chief of security. Years later, when the Governor became President, Hickey promised his friend Tom Stenson, the late owner of the Eire, that he would bring the President by the pub for a visit someday.

"Ed Hickey was a friend of my father's for years," John Stenson said this week. "When he finally did come by, my father was on vacation in Florida."

After the visit, Reagan sent a personal letter to the elder Stenson, wishing him happy St. Patrick's Day, and at the second Reagan inaugural in 1985, Tom Stenson and his wife, Mary, happily accepted an invitation to be among the guests.

This week, when word of Mr. Reagan's passing was in the news, the Eire Pub became the center of local media "sidebar" coverage. "When I arrived here for work at 6 Sunday morning, a channel 4 news crew was here waiting for me," Tom's son, John Stenson, said. On Tuesday, a CBS crew from the program "48 Hours" set up shop in the pub, recording interviews for an expected report on Friday night, following the funeral.

"There were three of us in the photo with the President," John Stenson said. "Myself, Martin Nicholson (a bartender who now is also co-owner) and Ronnie Polaro, who then was in sales at Joe Sullivan's Neponset Lincoln Mercury."

Stenson invited Polaro back on Tuesday afternoon, and the three men sat at the bar and reminisced for the CBS cameras about that famous day 21 years ago.

Most people alive in Dorchester on that mid-winter day in 1983 still have vivid memories of the Presidential visit. Ronald Reagan brought much excitement to Dorchester that day, and the recollections of the visit remain fond and happy for those who saw him.

Ronald Reagan is gone now, after a 10-year battle with alzheimer's disease. May he rest in peace.

- Ed Forry