Senator Ted Kennedy, who died yesterday, will be best remembered in this country as a true friend of Ireland, but he will be remembered in the United States for much more. He was elected to the US Senate in 1962 at a time when the Irish-Americans had finally come out of the political shadows following the election of his brother, John F Kennedy, to the White House in 1960.

Senator Edward Kennedy took the helm of his sailboat Mya in a regatta, just a week after undergoing a brain biopsy that diagnosed him with cancer.