Edward Kennedy

In 1989 I spent 10 days touring Kerry with Ted Kennedy, following a meeting I had arranged with himself, Taoiseach Charlie Haughey, and US Senator Chris Dodd on Haughey’s holiday island Inishvickillane. We gelled straight away. It was very chilled out. He knew more about Ireland than we do ourselves. At the end of the trip I presented him with a model of an Irish currach. In a letter of thanks he said:

"Like so many things in life, it's the individuals who make the difference and you truly made Ireland come alive for Chris and me while we were there.
In a strange way although I had been to Ireland a number of times before, this time seemed like the first -- no political heavy lifting, and the luxury of letting myself be carried away by the magic of the country, the warmth of the new friends we made, the wind and the sea that envelops us everywhere, you seemed to make it all happen,"

He was a great guy. Few people realise how much he actually achieved.

Nobel Laureate John Hume and SDLP Leader Mark Durkan have paid tribute to Senator Edward Kennedy who has died at the age of 77 – describing him as ‘a bulwark of the peace process.’
Former SDLP leader John Hume, a close personal friend, said:

“Senator Kennedy was an outstanding supporter of our peace process. His commitment to Ireland was strong and positive, while peace and justice was always at the top of his agenda.”
Mr Durkan, who worked as an intern in Mr Kennedy’s office in 1985 described him as "absolutely inspirational" and said the Democratic politician stood against injustice and was resolutely opposed to violence:


“Edward Kennedy stood against injustice, inertia and intransigence and was absolutely opposed to violence.


“He was a true bulwark of the peace process. To use a phrase often used by him, ‘he did not bend with the wind or break with the waves’.


“He took a cause and stuck to it and did not lose sight of what was needed or what was right.
“He also helped many people in the US overcome their prejudices and preconceptions about the Northern Ireland situation.
"He made himself available to everyone in the Northern Ireland political scene.

"He was someone who, more than anyone else, established the validity and benevolence of the American interest and how positive the Irish-American interest in our situation could be - that it didn't have to be just pro-nationalist, didn't have to be anti-unionist, it was about helping make sure there would be a process with a democratic outcome in which everyone could share the benefits."

Ed took no comfort, friends say, in hearing how missed he was in Washington, or how in his absence he had been become something of a “spiritual leader” on issues with which he is identified, like health care. He kept in close touch with his staff and colleagues, and he was engaged in a running conversation with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, on the delicate subject of whether Mr. Kennedy would be available to vote.

Mr. Reid assured him that he would not ever ask him to come to Washington unless his vote was essential. (His disease and treatments made Mr. Kennedy vulnerable to infections, so wading into crowded areas was risky.) When a crucial Medicare provision came up last summer, Mr. Reid asked Mr. Kennedy if he could make it down.

Mr. Kennedy’s family and staff debated the issue until the senator ended it. “I’ll be there,” he said, according to a member of his staff who was involved in the decision. He received a standing ovation when he returned to the Senate floor, and the bill passed easily after he helped break a Republican filibuster.

Vicki Kennedy fiercely guarded her husband’s privacy, but Mr. Kennedy’s illness had an undeniably public component. His setbacks and hospital visits often drew news media attention. After his emotional speech at last summer’s Democratic Convention in Denver, it was disclosed that he had been suffering from kidney stones and had barely been able to get out of his hospital bed a few hours earlier.

He had to memorize the text of his speech because he struggled to see the teleprompter (his surgery had left him with impaired vision). The seizure Mr. Kennedy had at an Inaugural luncheon at the Capitol led his son Patrick to joke that his father was trying to overshadow Mr. Obama on his big day.

Mr. Kerry remembers Mr. Kennedy telling him on the Senate floor in March that he was having trouble preparing for an event he had been extremely excited for — throwing out the first pitch on opening day at Fenway Park.

While Mr. Kennedy typically told people he felt well and vigorous, by spring it was becoming clear that his disease was advancing to where he could not spend his remaining months as he had hoped, helping push a health care plan through the Senate.

He left Washington in May, after nearly a half-century in the capital, and decamped to Cape Cod, where he would contribute what he could to the health care debate via phone and C-Span. He would sail as much as possible, with as little pain and discomfort as his caretakers could manage.

He also told friends that he wanted to take stock of his life and enjoy the gift of his remaining days with the people he loved most.

“I’ve had a wonderful life,” he said repeatedly, friends recalled.

Mr. Dodd, in an interview, said: “At no point was he ever maudlin, ever ‘woe is me.’ I’m confident he had his moments — he wouldn’t be Irish if he didn’t — but in my presence, he always sounded more worried about me than he was about himself.”

Starting in late July, Vicki Kennedy organized near-nightly dinner parties and singalongs at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. The senator was surrounded in the dining room by his crystal sailing trophies and a semiregular cast of family members that included his three children, two stepchildren and four grandchildren. Jean Kennedy Smith, Mr. Kennedy’s sister, had rented a home down the street this summer and became a regular, too. Instead of singing, she would sometimes recite poetry.

Even as Mr. Kennedy became frustrated about his limitations, friends say his spirit never flagged. “This is someone who had a fierce determination to live, but who was not afraid to die,” said Representative Bill Delahunt, a Democrat and a Kennedy friend whose district includes Cape Cod. “And he was not afraid to have a lot of laughs until he got there.”

In recent years, friends say, Mr. Kennedy had come to lean heavily on his Roman Catholic faith. In eulogizing his mother, Rose Kennedy, in 1995, he spoke of the comfort of religious beliefs. “She sustained us in the saddest times by her faith in God, which was the greatest gift she gave us,” Mr. Kennedy said, his voice stammering.

He attended Mass every day in the year after his mother’s death and continued to attend regularly, often a few times a week.

The Rev. Mark Hession, the priest at the Kennedys’ parish on the Cape, made regular visits to the Kennedy home this summer and held a private family Mass in the living room every Sunday. Even in his final days, Mr. Kennedy led the family in prayer after the death of his sister Eunice on Aug. 11. He died comfortably and in no apparent pain, friends and staff members said.

His children had expected him to hold on longer — Mr. Kennedy’s son Patrick and daughter Kara could not get back to Hyannis Port in time from California and Washington.

But the senator’s condition took a turn Tuesday night and a priest — the Rev. Patrick Tarrant of Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Mass. — was called to his bedside. Mr. Kennedy spent his last hours in prayer, Father Tarrant told a Boston television station, WCVB-TV.

Mr. Kennedy had told friends recently that he was looking forward to a “reunion” with his seven departed siblings, particularly his brothers, whose lives had been cut short.

“When he gets there, he can say ‘I did it, I carried the torch,’ ” Mr. Delahunt said. “ ‘I carried it all the way.’ ”

A testament to Senator Kennedy’s commitment to social change was his desire to see President Obama’s health care reform passed in the event of his death, and his request to the governor of Massachusetts to change state law so that his seat would not be vacant during any vote.

May the fruits of his labour continue to blossom. Rest in peace.

I wish to pay tribute to the work of a great man who was a constant inspiration in my life. I remember as a young man his visit to Limerick in 1964 and the powerful emotion of that day. Throughout the years he had many personal tragedies and trials, but managed to rise above them and always fought for what was just, for the underdog, for civil rights, for peaceful resolution to conflict, especially in Ireland. What a loss to American politics, and to Ireland.