His familiy made the transition from bootlegging gangsterism to high office long ago. Teddy is not going to let Gerry Adams & Co take him back to his roots.

Kennedy pproves himself as gutless and worthless as ever. He's finished now as a figure of any standing in Irish-American politics. Foer a man who has failed every character test he faced in his life to be again found wanting at an important moment is no surprise at all.

This will damage him far more than it will damage Gerry Adams.

Such are the ground-rules for the right-wing pan-nationalist front. SF hasno place to hide, theye threw their lot in with dangerous opportunists like Kennedy, just like they did with pet food millionnaire Reynolds, the clapped-out careerist Hume, British secureaucrats and other shady folk whose interests are not those of the Irish working class, on the contrary. They've got little or nothing of worth from it and have demeaned themselves in the process; now they find that the ruling class with which they've aligned themselves holds all the cards and will dictate how they behave.

Better late than never i suppose.

It has taken a long time for the penny to drop as far as the kennedy's are concerned but hey! didn't it drop with a clang that can still be heard reverberating around the World.

All we need now is for the rafia to be dealt with through due process of law.

Shouldn't be too hard on the old soak Henry. After all if he hears the story of how Mc Cartney and the robber were left to die in Market St and how no one phoned an ambulance or tried to get help it may bring back memories of one of the character defining moments of his own life.

Ted Kennedy is a lot to do with why the process as we know it today exists. Must have been one of the chuckies' fair weather friends.

Senator Ted Kennedy is highly respected in the US in liberal Democratic circles, especially on Irish affairs. This is probably worse for SF than being shut out of the White House. Senator Kennedy is taking a new strategy which Irish America will carefully consider, especially those of a liberal leaning, like myself. It is foolish to underestimate this development. Congressman Peter King just came out against SF/IRA, now Senator Kennedy: The right and left of the US are joined on this issue. And, I applaud them for it.

New Yorker,
my understanding is that Peter King has called on the IRA to disband. What did he say about Sinn Fein?

Dear George,

Peter King called on the IRA to disband, as far as I know he did not mention SF. But as they are one and the same, the implication is that he will be cold shouldering them. No one over here thinks there are two movements one SF and the other IRA, they are joined at the head and throughout both organizations down to constituency level. Without the IRA, what would SF have - ideas? What ideas? A 32 county socalist republic?

The Peter King attack on the IRA is much more significant than the Kennedy rebuff. King has always championed the IRA in the USA. Now he says "they are making Ian Paisley look good!"

To hear what King said, go to RTE News - This Week - 13 March 2005 and scroll down to
No White House invite for NI parties

Peter King, US Congressman, reacts to the latest developments affecting the Northern Ireland peace process

George
SF/IRA same thing. The politicians might some day want to suggest that they are separate entities for a political fudge, but the ordinary people won't accept it. Creative ambigutity will not be accepted not this time. SF/IRA same thing. No difference. It's not a fact, it's an opinion, and it's opinions that matter particularly when they are shared by many.

Jaysus, this is great! At this rate, Sean McManus will have to take Gerry to the zoo to keep him company.

"His familiy made the transition from bootlegging gangsterism to high office long ago."

Yeah, and the lads just hijack the booze instead of smuggling it...

Whatever his faults, Ted Kennedy has no Shankill fish shop, Enniskillen or Warrington in his past.

with the news that a second SF coucilor was at the bar when McCartney died, but has said nothing to the authorities (despite what Adams has requested publically) it must be concluded that the two orgainsations are indivisible.

Tell me Mr Adams when the IRA offered to shoot the killers of Mr McCartney were you as shocked as the rest of us?

2nd SF councillor? I wasn't aware that there was one.

New Yorker:
So if (IYO) SF and the IRA are actually the same thing, does that mean that King was calling for SF to disband. Is that what you really believe?
Not very realistic is it?

SF have actually outlined a broad range of political proposals (much brader than the simplitstic view that all the stand for is a 32 county Irish republic). Unfortunately many people fail to see beyond their prejudices to actually read them - pity, cos some of them are actually quite good.

Watching the Kennedy sprog's behaviour just reinforces my opinion of what a giant of Irish-America George Harrison was. Talk about fair weather friends, when the in-power section of the US establishment moves, no matter what their politics, they all move with it, as if on cue.
What a contemptible bunch Gerry Adam's got himself immersed with, and for what? IM sure given time they will swing back the other way, but how you can be a strong supporter of something one minute and not the next, when in reality very little real change has occurred is beyond me. The link between SF and the PIRA is no different today than when Kennedy and his ilk thought the sun shined out of Mr Adam's proverbial.

mickhall,

What do you think of Congressman Peter King? In the spectrum of American politics, he falls between Ted Kennedy and George Harrison (a large gulf, indeed). His negative reaction to the IRA is much more significant than Kennedy's, IMHO.