MPs' fury as U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy gets honorary knighthood for Northern Ireland role
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1159094/MPs-fury-U-S-Senator-Ted-Kennedy-gets-honorary-knighthood-Northern-Ireland-role.html?ITO=1490Veteran U.S. senator Edward Kennedy is to be awarded an honorary knighthood in a move which drew immediate condemnation from Conservative MPs.
The Queen has agreed to the honour for the 77-year-old Democrat - brother of assassinated U.S. president John F Kennedy - for services to the British-American relationship and to Northern Ireland, Downing Street said.
Gordon Brown will announce the award formally during his address to both houses of Congress today.
But the decision to honour a man closely linked to the Irish Republican movement astonished Tory MPs.
One frontbencher said: 'I don't think it's appropriate. He hardly had the British interests at heart.'
Former Home Office Minister Ann Widdecombe said: 'It seems to me a bit of an odd choice, but diplomacy has no bounds.'
The senator was an influential figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, capable of swinging Irish-American opinion as head of the Kennedy family - descended from an emigré from County Wexford.
Ted Kennedy was pilloried by Loyalists after he compared the British presence in Ulster to America's involvement in Vietnam in 1971.
That year he called for Britain's immediate withdrawal from Ireland, declaring that Protestants who could not accept a united Ireland 'should be given a decent opportunity to go back to Britain'.
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Two years later he continued to insist that the unification of Ireland under Dublin's jurisdiction was the only sensible option - though he was by then affirming that Catholics and Protestants must have equal roles.
Ten years later Mr Kennedy established the Congressional Friends of Ireland, dedicated to pursuing peace.
In the late 1990s he met not only with Tony Blair, his Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern, but also with Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams.
Edward Kennedy and Gerry Adams, 1996
Controversy: The Senator meets Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams on Capitol Hill in 1996
Now-retired Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern hugs Senator Kennedy after addressing a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington on 30 April 2008. Ahern thanked the U.S. for helping to achieve peace in Northern Ireland
Now-retired Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern hugs Senator Kennedy after addressing a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington on 30 April 2008. Ahern thanked the U.S. for helping to achieve peace in Northern Ireland
In 2005, he snubbed Adams when he visited Washington, over the IRA murder of Catholic Robert McCartney in a Belfast pub.
In 2007 the Senator was at Stormont when sworn enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness took their oaths of office as power-sharing was restored.
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Mr Kennedy, who has been a senator for his home state of Massachusetts for more than 46 years, is being treated for brain cancer and has spent little time in Washington this year.
He had surgery last year to remove a malignant tumour and suffered a seizure at President Obama's inauguration luncheon on January 21.
The senator is the last of the three brothers who dominated U.S. politics during some of the country's most tumultuous times.
His brothers John and Bobby were both assassinated during the 1960s - just two of numerous tragedies that have blighted the life of Ted and his famous Irish-American family.
mary jo
Mary Jo Kopechne, who was killed after Senator Kennedy drove a car off a bridge 30 years ago
The veteran senator's eldest brother Joseph was also killed in a Second World War plane crash, he watched his father struck down by a incapacitating stroke and he himself is now battling a fatal form of brain cancer.
The senator also narrowly escaped death in a 1964 plane crash but was left with permanent back pain.
Kennedy, now 77, has also been swamped by controversy, notably after a fatal car accident on Chappaquiddick Island on America's east coast in 1969.
In a scandal that was to destroy his marriage to his first wife, Joan, his car plunged off a bridge and the woman riding with him, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.
The senator, who was 37 at the time, did not report the accident for eight hours.
He attended Mary Jo's funeral wearing an orthopaedic neck brace.
He later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of the crime and was given a two-month suspended jail sentence.
Apart from destroying his first marriage, the episode was also seen to have widely damaged his political ambitions.
Shocked onlookers look over the bridge to the senator's wrecked car below
Shocked onlookers look over the bridge to the senator's wrecked car below
But his more than 46 years as a senator have seen him hailed a 'giant in American political history' by President Barack Obama.
He has been vocal in his support for the new president, for his country's healthcare reform and the Northern Ireland peace process. He was also one of a vocal minority opposing the Iraq war.
Kennedy was born in Boston on 22 February 1932, one of nine children to Irish-American businessman and politician Joseph Kennedy and his wife Rose Fitzgerald.
President Obama laughs with Senator Kennedy as the pair campaigned together during the presidential race last year
President Obama laughs with Senator Kennedy as the pair campaigned together during the presidential race last year
Edward Kennedy with the sisters of Robert McCartney in Washington in 2005
Protest: Kennedy joins the sisters of Robert McCartney in Washington in 2005 to protest at his murder by the IRA
The notoriously clannish political dynasty - particularly the generation including Ted and his brothers Bobby and John - have always been fiercely proud of their Irish heritage.
To this day, John F. Kennedy is the only Irish Catholic ever to have been elected president of the United States.
Ted Kennedy went to Harvard University, followed by a stint at the University of Virginia Law School.
He was elected senator for Massachusetts in 1962, filling the vacancy left his brother John after he became president.
In 1963, brother John was shot dead in Dallas, Texas, and within five years Bobby was also killed, the victim of a shooting in Los Angeles.
Kennedy ran for the presidency twice himself, first in 1974 when he eventually withdrew from the race and again in 1980, when he failed to beat Jimmy Carter during the primaries.
Senator Kennedy, left, accompanies Jacqueline, the widow of his brother John F. Kennedy, centre, his brother Robert, right, and his niece and nephew John Jr and Caroline at JFK's funeral on November 25, 1963
Senator Kennedy, left, accompanies Jacqueline, the widow of his brother John F. Kennedy, centre, his brother Robert, right, and his niece and nephew John Jr and Caroline at JFK's funeral on November 25, 1963
Ted Kennedy, second from right on the opposite side of the casket, helps carry the coffin of his brother Robert after his assassination
Ted Kennedy, second from right on the opposite side of the casket, helps carry the coffin of his brother Robert after his assassination
He lives in the family stronghold of Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with his wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Together, they have five children - Kara, Edward Jr, and Patrick Kennedy, and Curran and Caroline Raclin.
Despite his illness, Kennedy is still politically active.
His current political positions include chairman on the Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee in the Senate.
He also serves on the Armed Services Committee, and boasts membership of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and the Congressional Friends of Ireland.
Topic: Ted Kennedy to be KNIGHTED??????? (Read 693 times)