Ireland on the Potomac
Aram Bakshian, Jr
Washington The recent furore over Senator Edward Kennedy's meddling in the unhappy Ulster situation has received far more attention overseas than here in Washington, where It originated. Perhaps the placid reaction in America can be explained by the fact that Teddy is better known on this side of the Atlantic. It was just the sort of thing one has come to expect from him, and it in no way reflected the official thinking of the Nixon administration, or, for that matter the opposition Democratic party. Rather, it was a case of dynastic politics. Teddy has fallen heir to the somewhat shopworn Kennedy political inheritance and the death duties have been heavy. Things have further deteriorated thanks to Teddy's own high living, reckless driving and his being sacked as Democratic whip by his Senate colleagues.
The result: Teddy has moved ever further to the left, courting the radical youth wing of his party — the wing he imagines to be the key, to victory in the late 1970s or early 1980s. His presidential ambitions for 1972 went over the embankment along with his car and his secretary although, unlike the latter, they may still be revived by artificial respiration if front-running Democratic candidates deadlock in convention this summer.
Meanwhile, Teddy has staked himself out several degrees to the left of everyone else in the running. Domestically, this means calling for a costlier federal health plan than any of his rivals, attacking President Nixon's China visit (which his party leadership has honourably declared off-limits politically), and peddling the familiar New Left drivel about a corrupt older generation, a sick society and the panacea of youthful idealism. Internationally the corollary has been popping off about Ulster, and similar ploys.
Few Washington observers were surprised then, when Teddy took to the floor of the United States Senate to denounce British troop presence in Ulster and blurt nonsence about exerting American pressure to get on with "the unification of Ireland." The tip-off had come weeks earlier when Teddy tried out his act in Bengal, with a blistering attack on Pakistan after a short " fact-fInding " tour of refugee camps, conducted under the wing of the Indian government. Responsible members of the Senate were taken a bit aback, but Teddy's New Left followers loved it. And how many Pakistani voters are there in Massachusetts?
The same question is even more appropriate regarding Ulster. Taking pot shots at Great Britain has been a traditional pastime for politicians with large Irish-American constituencies for at least a century now. Shortly after the American Civil War, the Fenians even launched an abortive invasion of Canada. They have not altogether mellowed with the passing years, either. Teddy's father, the late Joseph Kennedy, was perhaps the most anti-British ambassador ever to represent the States at the Court of St James, and he passed his notions on to his brood, in much the same fashion as Hamilcar Barca raised Hannibal and his brothers on hatred for Rome.
There is a brighter side to this modern sequel however — a source of encouragement to everyone but the Kennedys • and the IRA. That is the growing moderation of rank-and-file Irish-Americans. Most of them have been fully assimilated, socially and economically, into American life. Like Squire Western's Jacobitism, their Fenian sentiment seldom extends beyond a few strong words over an appropriate bottle, as Bernadette Devlin found during her fund-raising visit to the States. Despite her antipathy to the capitalist system, the fair Bernadette visited these shores with visions of millions of greenbacks just waiting to be garnered for the 'cause.' Nothing on that scale was forthcoming, and, to make matters worse, some of the few naive Irish-Americans who did contribute really believed that the money was to go for medical supplies. When reports to the contrary trickled back, Bernadette became persona non grata with the more reputable IrishAmerican leaders and organisations. Today, what sentiment there is among them is vaguely pro-Irish Republic, but that sentiment is wan indeed.
Not that this will stop Teddy. He was never much noted for his intellect (in fact, he was once tossed out of college for hiring a substitute to take an exam for him), and Papa Joe was a firm father whose Anglophobia was most thoroughly ingrained. But President Nixon, despite the current balance of payments tiff, is an old friend of Britain and generally committed to avoiding unnecessary American intervention around the world, especially in cases involving friendly powers. Additionally, press and television coverage of the Ulster disturbances has grown fairer as the lads in the IRA have allowed the leprechaunish mask to slip, revealing themselves for the trigger-happy gunmen that they are. Result: an American public already heartily sick of US global commitments is more than content to leave the whole affair alone.
There is another comforting thought. The old Irish-American political strongholds like Massachusetts are themselves undergoing a drastic transformation. The early waves of Irish immigrants have been succeeded by even heavier waves of Italians who, whatever their failings, have always outpaced even the Irish when it comes to breeding.
Given a few years, the Irish question in American politics may be a moot one, even in Teddy Kennedy's native Massachusetts.
The burning issue by 1984 is more than likely to be Corsican independence, or 'Calabria for the Calabrians '. Count on Teddy to be in the vanguard of the movement, assuming he drives safely in the interim.
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