Word: irishness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...least, the public part was. Through it all, behind the sad pageantry, a quieter remembrance was under way. The night before the funeral, his closest friends held an improvised wake; Teddy led them in singing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling." The next day, as he walked with Jackie and Bobby behind the casket, Teddy wore the trousers Jack had worn for his Inauguration and a pair of his gloves. This was how it went: the younger brother quite literally assuming, if not his brother's role, then at least his costume. And late that night, long after the burial, Jackie...
...then he quoted his brother's message, to all those he had sought to lead: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not." Then a funeral train carried his body to Washington; inside was a traveling Irish wake, with family and friends assuring one another that life goes on, telling stories, singing, laughing. Outside, the tracks and fields and sidewalks were lined with many thousands of people waiting to say goodbye. It was dark by the time the assembly reached Arlington; the pallbearers seemed lost, unsure where...
...Speaking on Wednesday, Aug. 26, former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, an old friend of Kennedy's, revealed that one of the late Senator's favorite songs was "The Town I Loved So Well." The lyrics lament the decline of the city of Derry during Northern Ireland's 25-year sectarian conflict from a place of "happy days in so many, many ways" to a town "brought to its knees by the armored cars and bombed-out bars." It was an apt choice of song for Kennedy, whose dealings with Northern Ireland were often linked to the city. (See pictures...
...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...
...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...