Word: irished
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...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 in Washington...
...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...
...Kennedy who, on 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...
...into the realms of trying to assess the behind-the-scenes influence that he exerted, and that's not so easy," says Graham Walker, professor of political history at Queen's University in Belfast. "Ted Kennedy's role in that era was keeping the wilder voices of Irish America in check. There were a lot of headlines in the 1970s about his calls for 'troops out,' but I think as time went on he was a moderating influence, pushing [Irish] Republicans along a political path." (See pictures of the British army withdrawing from Northern Ireland...
...opened at the U.S. Consulate in Belfast, a commemoration was held in the small town of Warrenpoint to mark the 30th anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in the Troubles, when 18 British soldiers were killed by a bomb planted by the IRA outside the town. As Northern Irish politicians travel to Kennedy's funeral in Arlington, Va., this weekend, perhaps the most fitting tribute to him, and to all of those who worked on the Northern Ireland peace process, is that events like the bombing in Warrenpoint - and the other deadly chapters from the Troubles being observed this...