Mass in Memory of Senator Ted Kennedy  Friday, August 28, 2009 at 5:30pm
St. James Cathedral, 804 9th Ave, Seattle
At the request of Seattle's Irish community, a Mass of Remembrance will be offered for Sen. Edward Kennedy, tomorrow, Friday evening, August 28, at 5:30pm at St. James Cathedral. The Very Reverend Michael G. Ryan, Pastor of St. James, will preside. All are invited to attend and remember, and to pray for him, his family and our nation.
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It is especially fitting that Seattle's Irish should gather to mourn the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy as he is being widely mourned in Ireland.
Yesterday, Ireland's Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Brian Cowen, said: "In good days and bad, Ted Kennedy worked valiantly for the cause of peace on this island."
Micheál Martin, Ireland's Foreign Minister, said that the former senator "knew and loved Ireland - its people, its music and its culture", adding that "his special dedication to the peace process was unrivalled and deeply held".
The most respected and best-known Irish-American of this generation, Kennedy is remembered for his strong support for Irish causes, but especially for his efforts to achieve peace in Northern Ireland since the very start of the "Troubles" in 1969.
That year, Kennedy sent a telegram to Northern Ireland's Civil Rights Association telling them they were not alone in their struggle. In 1971, he told the US Senate that "Ulster is becoming Britain's Vietnam" and called for a united Ireland. After Bloody Sunday 1972, when British soldiers killed 13 civil rights marchers in Derry, Kennedy called for a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. During the 1970s and 1980s, as one of the "Four Horsemen" - Ted Kennedy, Tip O'Neill, Hugh Carey and Sen. Patrick Moynihan - he worked closely with the Irish Government and John Hume, the Nobel Laureate and former SDLP leader. In the 1990s, he worked with his now only surviving sibling, Jean Kennedy Smith, who was then U.S. ambassador to Ireland. In 1994, despite ferocious British opposition, Kennedy convinced President Clinton to permit Gerry Adams to visit the US, something that is now credited as being the breakthrough that culminated in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. In recent years, Kennedy pushed for comprehensive immigration reform, giving hope to the thousands of undocumented Irish in the US.
Over the past 40 years, Kennedy truly was Ireland's greatest friend in the US, and we shouldn't forget it.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis
May his faithful soul rest at the right hand of God
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