Remembering Senator Ted Kennedy

Senator Ted Kennedy (1932-2009)

"Senator Ted Kennedy was a champion of Irish causes for all of his career, and a formidable ally to have had on your side in the nation’s capital. Kennedy’s death of brain cancer on August 25, 2009 closed one more chapter in the Boston Irish annals, marking a changing of the guard, the official end of the Camelot era, the last of the Last Hurrahs.

"...He devoted the final three decades of his career to being the best US senator he could possibly be. He vigorously pursued the social causes that were dear to him: health care reform; civil rights for minorities, women, gays, and the disabled; protecting jobs and economic opportunity for working people; human rights around the world; and immigration reform here in America....

"'I grew up in a large Irish Catholic family as the youngest of nine children,' he once wrote. 'By their words, their actions, and their love, our parents instilled in all of us the importance of the ties that bind us together—our faith, our family, and our love of this great country.'"

Excerpts from Irish Boston, 2nd edition, by Michael Quinlin

Publication Date: October 1, 2013

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