Letter to the Irish Echo from Michael Cummings.
Posted by Jim on October 28, 2015
Friends: The late Senator Kennedy obviously played an important part in the Irish peace process albeit a limited and belated one. As a Kennedy acolyte I would expect Ms. Vargo to reinforce and embellish that role. I offer this letter not to diminish his contribution but to clarify its timing and his disinterest in earlier opportunities to ‘grasp the nettle.’
Mike
October 26, 2015
Letters Editor
IRISH ECHO
165 Madison Ave, Suite 302
New York, New York 10016
Dear Editor:
Ms. Trina Vargo’s commentary on the late Senator Kennedy’s role in the Irish peace process had an interesting spin. As the Senator’s aide, she depicted her role in that process and recorded her views for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute. His support of the 1998 pact as well as that of his sister, Ambassador Jean Kennedy was obviously helpful . He was, however, a latecomer, to serious peace efforts and usually limited his role to insufferable sanctimonious St. Patrick’s Day press releases.
What Senator Kennedy knew or wanted to know about the conflict was what the Department of State and the British government fed him. The British partitioned not only the geography of Ireland but the political thinking to achieve their purposes. Unfortunately that left out the voice and the grievances of a large segment of the Catholic Nationalist community. His Massachusetts constituents and Irish American leaders in 1988-1989 urged a role for the Senator in seeking a U. S. visa for Gerry Adams. Remember in 1988 Adams was then an elected Member of Parliament, a published author, the elected leader of the only party competing in all 32 counties, and had never been arrested or convicted of a crime!! He declined and refused to meet to discuss the issue with more informed leaders like Paul O’Dwyer. A lawsuit supported by Irish American leaders, journalists and civil rights advocates (the AOH, INA, IAUC, Niall O’Dowd, the ACLU) was rejected by the Court of Appeals (909 F. 2nd 643 (#89-903) in 1990 affirming Secretary of State Baker had the power to refuse Adams a visa and needn’t bother explaining or justifying his decision.
In failing to join or lend his voice to that visa appeal Kennedy contradicted all that he had stood for elsewhere in the U. S. and the world. Had the Senator made any effort to listen to the appeals of those interned or to the families of those murdered in Ballymurphy, to the victims of plastic bullets, or opened his eyes to the corruption of justice or read the documentation of the hundreds of Catholics murdered by UK collusion with loyalist death squads or joined that visa appeal, he could have changed the course of history and saved hundreds of lives. His subsequent stumbling through the peace process…like the refusal to meet Adams in 2005…simply exposed how the British were still dictating to him and his staff.
Contrary to Ms. Vargo’s assertion, history has NOT proven Kennedy correct on Northern Ireland but he did thankfully join the steam rolling peace process after dozens of more attentive Senators and Members of Congress from New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania and President Clinton led the way.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Cummings
12 Marion Ave
Albany, New York 12203-1814