Blarney was the unlikely spot for the first Roman-Irish bathhouse, says Hugh Carey

Exploiting the US president’s Irish ancestry helped Ireland retain its influence on Capitol Hill, writes Ryle Dwyer

IN August 1979, Margaret Thatcher, referring to New York governor Hugh Carey’s visit to Ireland amid reports that he was planning to put pressure on the British government over Northern Ireland, said she “would not think of discussing with President Carter, for example, US policy towards their black population”.

TED Kennedy wasn’t Jack and he wasn’t Bobby but, despite growing tarnished and growing old, he achieved more than both of them put together, particularly when it came to Ireland.

THE government was embarrassed after New York congressman Mario Biaggi wrote to taoiseach Jack Lynch on January 24, 1978, congratulating him on an RTÉ interview a fortnight earlier in which he called on the British to declare their intention to withdraw their troops from Northern Ireland.