Edward Kennedy RIP - Kennedy son who achieved the most

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.

It may seem strange to anyone who grew up since then that this marked a political watershed not only for Irish-Americans but also for all Catholic Americans. Prior to 1960, conventional political thinking suggested that a Catholic could not be elected president.

President Kennedy set out to break down other barriers, especially in the area of civil rights. He was assassinated in 1963 and his brother, Bobby, took up the torch, only to be assassinated while running for the presidency in 1968. In a sense Ted Kennedy remained in the shadow of his dead brothers for the remainder of his life, but he actually achieved more than either of them in the political arena.