The Irish American who made it possible for John F. Kennedy to become the first US President from the Roman Catholic tradition, will be honoured this weekend in Moate, Co Westmeath.
The townland of Parkwood, near Moate, was the birthplace of the grandparents of the man who was known as "The Happy Warrior", Al Smith, who had a major impact on American politics.
Smith was born in 1873 in New York. His mother, Catherine, was a daughter of Thomas Mulvihill and Maria Marsh, who had left Parkwood near Moate in 1841 and married and settled in New York.
A brilliant student, the young Smith was also a gifted athlete, excelling at swimming, cycling and gymnastics. He was also a fine amateur actor.
Attracted by politics, the young Smith was a strong supporter of women's suffrage and from his earliest involvement in politics, showed a remarkable talent for the art of the possible.
By 1904 he was a member of the New York Assembly and became sheriff of his native city in 1915. He became governor of New York State for four periods.
He was a Democrat, and his greatest claim to fame was that he helped organise his party and urbanise it and break the Republican hold on US cities.
In 1928 Al Smith won the Democratic ticket to run for President but was beaten by the Republican, Herbert Hoover. Historians say that this was due to anti-Catholic bias, then virulent among the WASP fraternity.
In 1937 he visited the land of his grandparents and saw the long, low farmhouse they left before the famine to set up a new life in New York.
He visited Johnston's Hotel, now known as the Grand Hotel, in Moate and there met cousins from the Geoghegan and Marsh side of his family. He died in 1944, 16 years before John F. Kennedy was elected president by the political machine he had established.
On Sunday next, at the Dun na Si Heritage Centre in Moate, Al Smith will be remembered again when a permanent exhibition to his memory will be officially opened.
According to Vera Hughes, treasurer of the Al Smith Commemoration Committee, memorabilia including records and photographs will be on display.
The ceremony will be at 3 p.m. and the official opening will be by Dr Jim McCabe, the former Cavan footballer, who has a particular interest in Al Smith because his paternal grandfather emigrated from Ballintemple, Cavan, which is Dr McCabe's homeplace.