Lucas: The Troubles and Kennedys

Did Joe Biden appoint the right Joe Kennedy as special envoy to Northern Ireland?

The question arises following the naming of former Congressman Joe Kennedy III to the vacant post to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

This was the deal brokered by the U.S. that was designed to bring an end to 30 years of violence— known as the Troubles — in Northern Ireland.

It was signed April 10, 1998, and was approved by voters in Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and the people in the Republic of Ireland.

The agreement has been a success. It ended the Catholic/Protestant sectarian violence and the fighting between the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British. It is credited with bringing about peace and prosperity.

Since the signing the U.S. has assigned a special envoy to the province. The envoy is charged with overseeing the peace process and reporting back to Congress and the president. The post is currently vacant.

The last envoy, Mick Mulvaney, former acting chief of staff to President Donald Trump, resigned in 2021 after objecting to Trump’s alleged role in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.

So a Kennedy is the new special envoy.

Only there are two Joe Kennedys, both of whom happen to be former members of Congress — Joe Kennedy II, 70, and Joe Kennedy III, 42, his son.

While the appointment went to Kennedy III, with Biden, 80, who tends to confuse one person with another, you never know. He could have ended up naming the wrong Kennedy.

Had he done so, it would have been a blast. Unlike his laid-back son, Joe Kennedy II left a fiery trail wherever he went.

This was especially true when he visited Northern Ireland on a Congressional fact-finding mission in 1988, a time when the outlawed IRA was fighting to end British rule of the province and unite it with the Irish Republic.

The British, an occupation force,  at the time had some 10,000 troops stationed in the six-county province. British roadblocks, checkpoints and heavily armed troops on patrol were routine. Deadly clashes with the IRA were common.

Kennedy, a vocal critic of the discrimination and dominance of the Protestant majority over the minority Catholics, was warmly welcomed by the Irish Catholic press and people, but equally criticized by the pro-British Protestants and the British.

He brought back fond memories of the historic visit to Ireland — the Kennedy ancestral home — of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, five months before he was assassinated.

The Irish Catholic minority looked upon Joe Kennedy as an extension of JFK and as a savior. The British saw him as a troublemaker.

A Kennedy confrontation with the British seemed inevitable. And one occurred. I covered it.

Kennedy had just visited the home of a mother whose 20-year-old son had been killed in an ambush while attending an IRA funeral.

She lived in Divis Flats, a Catholic housing project in West Belfast. It was a site where IRA supporters routinely rioted against British soldiers

As Kennedy, accompanied by a local Catholic priest, headed back to downtown Belfast, he ran into a British blockade waiting to give him a hard time. British authorities had kept watch on Kennedy upon his arrival in Belfast,

Heavily armed British soldiers, exchanging rough words with Kennedy, ordered everyone out of the car, acting as though the passengers were IRA terrorists. They searched the car pretending to look for guns and bombs.

Shouts and profanities were exchanged as Kennedy, anything but passive, confronted the soldiers. Fists were about to be thrown, or shots fired. The priest called for calm.

“Go home. Why don’t you go home,” an aggressive British soldier shouted at Kennedy

Kennedy, chest out, refusing to be out swaggered, shouted back, “I am home. Why don’t you go home?”

Hardly had word of the confrontation gotten out when Kennedy was mobbed by the Irish Catholics and practically sainted for standing up to the Brits. The Brits were not too pleased.

So, somehow I didn’t think this Kennedy would be getting the job.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.