This BBC News article recounts some of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s many important contributions to facilitating the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The late senator’s efforts in this regard made him a beloved figure to many people in Ireland, the ancestral home of the famous Catholic clan of American Kennedys.

Writes BBC News,

Before Bill Clinton, the U.S. president, who was instrumental in the Irish peace process, there was Senator Ted Kennedy.

While it was the president who granted the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams a critical visa to the U.S. in the run-up to the IRA ceasefire of 1994, it was the senator who helped persuade the president.

“Ted Kennedy was the key that unlocked the Clinton White house door over-and-over again. That’s not just once but many times,” said Eamonn Mallie, co-author of The Fight for Peace.