Word: irelander
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...Kennedy's first forays into Northern Irish politics was to lend his support to the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. The campaign in the late 1960s and early '70s called for an end to discrimination against Catholics in housing and employment and was closely associated with Derry. After Bloody Sunday in 1972 - when 13 civilians were shot dead by the British army during a civil-rights march in Derry - Kennedy's position on Northern Ireland noticeably hardened. His comparisons of Northern Ireland with Vietnam and his calls for a British withdrawal from the province angered Protestants, many of whom came...
...famous sons repaired much of the damage caused by his earlier comments. During the 1980s, Kennedy became a close friend of John Hume, a Nobel Peace laureate and former leader of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party. For Hume, a key part of ending the conflict in Northern Ireland was persuading hard-line Irish-American groups that had donated money to the IRA during the Troubles - the period of sectarian violence that claimed more than 3,600 lives between the '60s and '80s - to support the fledgling peace process. Kennedy soon became the main cheerleader for Hume's cause...
...Kennedy's evolution from naive ignorance to deep understanding of the conflict in Northern Ireland mirrored a growing sophistication in Irish America about the conflict," says Kevin Cullen of the daily Boston Globe. "Teddy became the leading and most influential American voice on Ireland, and he stayed with it longer than any American politician." (See pictures of the Lion of the Senate...
...grand scale of American contributions to the peace process in Northern Ireland, however, Kennedy would probably be eclipsed by George Mitchell - former U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland and broker of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement - or by Bill Clinton, who took a closer interest in Northern Ireland than had any President before him. Instead, it's Kennedy's subtle yet influential lobbying that has been at the heart of the tributes paid to him in Northern Ireland since his death on Tuesday. (See Kennedy's top 10 legislative battles...
...Hume's advice, persuaded Clinton to grant a controversial U.S. visa to Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Party Sinn Fein, in 1994. At the time, the move was strongly opposed by the British government, but today the visa is seen as an important turning point in Northern Ireland's recent history. Adams was able to convince IRA supporters on U.S. soil of the merits of backing the peace process. Seven months later, the IRA announced its first military cease-fire, ending a 25-year terrorism campaign, with Protestant paramilitary groups calling their own cease-fires shortly thereafter...