Academic

READER PATRICK WHITTOME EMAILS: Small observation from a British fan if I may: Scotland (wrong?

By Glenn Reynolds

READER PATRICK WHITTOME EMAILS:

Small observation from a British fan if I may:

Scotland (wrongly) releases a convicted mass murdering terrorist. USA (rightly) goes ballistic.

Ted Kennedy dies. USA goes all ‘lion of the senate’, great man passing, blah, blah blah. He spent the 1970s giving huge support to Noraid. The press focus on his Chappaquiddick thing as the low point of his career – that’s not the view from Ulster!

Good point. It’s worth noting, though, that he repudiated Noraid later: “Then Noraid suffered a series of reverses. Four prominent Irish-American politicians – Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Senator Ted Kennedy, House Speaker Tip O’Neill, and New York Governor Hugh Carey – released a statement condemning activities which support the IRA. Then, in 1979, the murder of Mountbatten outraged Americans and support for Noraid diminished markedly.” So he may have just been a useful idiot.

UPDATE: An Irish perspective, from Slugger O’Toole.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on August 26, 2009 (boomark / email).