Kennedys accept peace award

The annual Tipperary International Peace Award has been jointly awarded to the late Senator Edward Kennedy and his sister, former US ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith in recognition of their “lifelong commitment towards peace in Northern Ireland and on the greater world stage”.

At a ceremony in Tipperary yesterday, the award was accepted by Ambassador Kennedy Smith and by Victoria (Vicki) Kennedy on behalf of her husband who died on August 25th last year.

The Tipperary Peace Convention was established in 1983 to promote peace at home and abroad. Previous recipients of the award include Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Adi Roche, Senator George Mitchell, Archbishop Robin Eames and, last year, the Cluster Munition Coalition.

Martin Quinn, secretary of the convention committee, read a message of congratulations from President Mary McAleese and a letter from the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen which stated that the work of Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith and Senator Ted Kennedy was "deeply appreciated by the people of Ireland and they and the Kennedy family will always be held in great affection and esteem by us". The Taoiseach concluded that:  "We are very fortunate to have such true friends".

Ambassador Kennedy Smith said she was "proud of the role the United States played in the peace process" and had been "privileged" to work with Albert Reynolds, Bertie Ahern and John Hume whom she described as "extraordinary leaders". She was "delighted" that her "children and grandchildren" were present.

In an emotional address, Mrs Kennedy recalled her husband's love of "this country and its people" and said of Ted Kennedy: "the map of Ireland was on his face, the Irish sea was in his blood and the songs of Erin were in his heart". Speaking of his
career and political achievements, she descried him has "one of the rare and happy few who bend the course of history".

The event was attended by no less than 13 members of the Kennedy family who had travelled from the United States for their largest-ever gathering in Ireland.  Among the 200 guests were former taoisigh Messrs Reynolds and Ahern; members of the Oireachtas, Northern Ireland Assembly and European Parliament; representatives of the Garda and the Defence Forces; the Ambassadors to Ireland of Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Hungary, Kenya, Latvia, The Philippines, and South Africa; and senior diplomats from the United States, Lesotho, Nigeria and Pakistan.

After the ceremony, the Kennedy family travelled to New Ross, Co Wexford to visit their ancestral home at Dunganstown. During his Budget speech last year, the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan announced funding for the site and work on a Kennedy Homestead Visitor Centre is expected to start later this year.