What a Grand Irish Wake It Was! Friends and Family Remember Teddy
By Susie Madrak Saturday Aug 29, 2009 10:00amI rarely watch over-hyped television events, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from Teddy Kennedy's wonderful Irish wake last night.
Since I grew up and still live in a largely Irish Catholic cohort, I don't know much about how other cultures usually deal with death. But I can tell you about the Irish side of my heritage: We do like to spit in the eye of death - with prayer, with jokes, with song. (And a side of sarcasm, please.)
And much like my own father's funeral, I got a much bigger picture of Ted Kennedy as reflected in the eyes of those who loved him.
But it wouldn't be a real Irish wake without this, one of my favorite Irish poems:
May those who love us, love us.
And those who don’t love us,
may God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
may He turn their ankles
so we’ll know them by their limping.
In Teddy's honor, we won't ever stop pointing to those limpers.
The Daily Beast:
Friday night's event commemorated both past and future, again beginning with the site. It was held at the John F. Kennedy Library, in an auditorium where Senator Kennedy used to hold dinners—shadow state dinners, really—to honor foreign leaders such as Czech President Vaclav Havel, Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and a variety of Irish politicians including Mary Robinson and John Hume. But the library is next door to a plot of land where the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate will rise. Boston's mayor Thomas Menino said it would provide "another lasting legacy of the Kennedys in Boston." Contributions to the project, budgeted at $100 million, have picked up since the senator's death, said its CEO, Peter Meade, and the public has been invited to contribute instead of sending flowers.
The night's speeches — a total of three-and-a-half hours that left the audience scrambling for cars in a downpour that is a foretaste of Tropical Storm Danny's promises for today -- alternated between solemn assessments of Kennedy's merits and accounts of his misadventures. The most entertaining of the latter came from John Culver, a former senator from Iowa and a college chum of Kennedy's. He told of being assured by Kennedy that "there's nothing to it" when he enlisted for a sailing race, and then being seasick, rain-soaked, and chilled for 24 hours while Kennedy shouted orders. "We were being bounced all over," said Culver, "and it's all my fault?" And Dodd told of a phone call from Kennedy earlier this month, when he was in a recovery room after prostate surgery. He said Kennedy told him, "Between undergoing prostate surgery and holding town meetings, you made the right choice."
Dodd turned serious then, listing some of the laws Kennedy sponsored in education, health and other areas, and compared him with his brothers: "John Fitzgerald Kennedy inspired America. Robert F. Kennedy challenged America. Our Teddy changed America."
Vice President Joe Biden told of how Kennedy "took on the role of being my elder brother" when he was in despair after his wife and daughter were killed and his sons gravely injured in a car crash just after he was first elected to the Senate. Kennedy urged him, again and again, to give the Senate a chance. He got him committee assignments, encouraged him to get involved, and then, when Biden suffered from brain aneurisms in 1988, took over his committee for him for months until arriving unexpectedly in Delaware to tell Biden he was needed and it was time to return.
Then Biden turned to the dozens of young Kennedys in the hall and said pundits were making a mistake when they said the era of Kennedy was over. "Because of you," he said, "the dream still lives."
The evening's final speaker made the same point. His niece, Caroline Kennedy, said, "We are the ones who have to do all the things he would have done, for ourselves and for our country."
Then the audience stood and all sang a favorite song of Kennedy's: "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."
Login or Register to post comments.
but a B-O-R-I-N-G event.
aren't uplifting events I dread them.
Lighten up! It was a funeral! Did you expect a song and dance?
Culver's story was hilarious. Joe Kennedy had me in tears and I sang along with the last song in my living room smiling and crying at the same time.
It would be wonderful if all the Kennedy siblings and cousins would get together and compile a book of all their favorite memories growing up with Teddy.
I'm not sure if I'd call that a true Irish wake. Yes, there was singing, stories and laughter, but no booze, at least none visible. And wakes are often held in pubs, not presidential libraries.
Not that it matters, of course. I loved the speeches. Biden, Culver, et al were giving lessons in good speech-making. There's nothing like a good, well-crafted, heartfelt speech that draws people together at a time of pain and makes things better.
or got past the image should I say of crazed revelers chugging huge urns of hops to tin whistle music.
Death being a return to true freedom. The booze helps understand this.
is liberation from this hellhole of delusion maybe the real reason for our sadness is realizing we are stuck here for a while longer having to deal with all this bullsh*t.
LOL
.
LOL
The Irish aren't the only people who celebrate death somewhat raucously. There's a lot to be said for it - it's so hard when someone you love dies.
You have to get through it somehow, deal with your grief, connect with your feelings and with the people around you.
Otherwise, how do you deal with the loss?
the idolization of the privileged or celebrity but having laid my own dad to rest I know what a helpless feeling it is and it truly changes your life.
but the rather they were praising the fact he spend a life trying to create opportunities for those who lacked wealth.
He helped people- a rare virtue these days
Everyone's out for #1
I'm not a materialist so that makes it even more frustrating.
Watched it all last night, and the funeral today. Anyone shallow enough to call this boring, is well, just lacking any true sense of our country's history from the 60's on up. Either that or a vacant soul that lacks empathy for the sacrifices and triumphs of the Kennedy brothers. Times were tough enough with Viet Nam, then they killed Martin, and a few months later, Bobby. Teddy was left to live out the legacy, but that plane crash right after the Civil Rights vote sure was creepy...eh?
Now, the trinity is complete...anybody here seen my old friend, Teddy??
the event boring you can make completely useless blanket assumptions about my life?
I bleed the ideals of social justice Mr. Kennedy championed. I have done and continue to do my part to uphold them and change the miserable landscape that has become this America regarding equality.
So you are wrong about me.
Knee - meet jerk.
But I'm thinking that ServeSomebody probably was remarking on the fact that you not only found the event boring, which is entirely your own business, but that you felt the need to come here and publicly state that your found it boring, and in big capital letters no less. Didn't really seem the time or the place for that... But glad to hear that you're not the jerk that that specific statement made you appear, but rather someone who made an ill-timed and slightly insensitive statement and then took great offense because someone judged you by it.
Personally, I thought the service was beautiful and Friday night's gathering was a perfect Irish wake, even though it wasn't in a pub (perhaps there was a bar set up somewhere discreetly off camera). I hope Teddy could hear all the stories and the wonderful things being said about him. He certainly had to listen to enough foul things being said about him in life.
It was also really touching to see decades worth of Kennedy staffers and friends covering the Senate steps to say goodbye, and people lining the street all the way to Arlington. A fitting farewell to an awe-inspiring public servant. Now if we can just get a decent health care reform bill passed and stamp his name on it...
to attend the more 'traditional' wakes...
Someone here turned me on to 'The Wire' a few years ago when the final season was going on. From that, I give you this. Ray Cole's wake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVznnoptsmM
(Sorry I can't embed... I cant think how right now)
This is how I'd like to be remembered,
although I didn't watch it all (my out-of-town brother and his family were visiting last night).
I got a big kick out of Culver's boat story and Biden's tale about Averill Harriman's Faberge egg. What a hoot!
It reminded me of my own father's wake and funeral many years ago. I dreaded going, but afterwards I was so glad I did. Laughing through the tears with family and friends telling old stories really made a difference and it helped me deal with the grief.
Ted Kennedy, rest in peace. You were loved by many.
May the Kennedy family find comfort and solace in this difficult time.
... to stop using the word "literally" in every other sentence. He's been doing this at least since appeared on the campaign trail as the VP pick, and it's incredibly annoying.
literally annoying, as opposed to figuratively annoying.
and it was excellent!
Weird, though, when McCain blew right by Victoria as she moved towards him to thank him for speaking. Was McCain too overcome with grief to notice her or was he pissed about something? Either way, she noticed it, too, judging by her raised eyebrows and her "WTF?" shirk.
She was remarkable, too - she acted as hostess during her own grief. I got the impression that she was stronger and more "together" than a lot of the guests.
Orrin Hatch was better than I thought he would be, despite not missing any opportunity to talk about his creepy Mormonism.
I've never been a fan of Joe Kennedy. We're the same age - I'm a few weeks older - and I've always judged him from that perspective: a privileged, pampered elite vs. a decidedly non-privileged working class guy - but I have to give him high marks; he knocked it out of the park and I was, for once, totally impressed with him.
Caroline almost lost it a couple of times while she spoke. It was the first time I'd ever seen her not in total control of herself.
Rest in peace, Ted. Your life was well-lived.
that McCain didn't recognize who Victoria was, like he doesn't recognize the working class Americans who are struggling with their economic woes.
Weird, though, when McCain blew right by Victoria...
i caught her return and the look on her face after missing the seconds before that, and wondered if that's what happened, 'cause it sure looked like he brushed her off...
i have a feeling that he was feeling castigated by some of the messages directed at teddy's determination to get health care, after his lies of the days before (especially about the kennedy bill containing a provision to pay for abortion!)...
noted his line about going back to the senate and being just as determined to stick to HIS wrongness...
i think he was being a pissant.
I saw the story yesterday about McCain endorsing Palin's lies about Death Panels in the Obama health care bill.
So he's made the decision to get in the gutter with the nutty Beck/Palinists.
Depressing, but somehow predictable.
..and the crowd was massive..It was amazing to hear so many accounts in line of how Kennedy inspired so many people to HELP others....
Various Kennedy family members went down the line to shake hands..
You can spot a Kennedy a mile away, most have the same smile.
We all signed condolence books at the end....
Watching the services last night..and today on CNN had me in tears.....I am so proud this man represented my state, and did so much to help people...You have no idea how much good he did for the people of Massachusetts
Sure, the local right wing radio scum hates Ted Kennedy, but all they feel for anyone is hatred...
Ya take the ice off the corpse, and put it one the beer!
The Night Pat Murphy Died
Oh the night that Paddy Murphy died,
is a night I'll never forget
Some of the boys got loaded drunk,
and they ain't got sober yet;
As long as a bottle was passed around
every man was feelin' gay
O'Leary came with the bagpipes,
some music for to play
That's how they showed their respect for Paddy Murphy
That's how they showed their honour and their pride;
They said it was a sin and shame
and they winked at one another
And every drink in the place
was full the night Pat Murphy died
As Mrs. Murphy sat in the corner pouring out her grief
Kelly and his gang came tearing down the street
They went into an empty room and a bottle of whiskey stole
They put the bottle with the corpse to keep that whiskey cold
About two o'clock in the morning after empty'ing the jug
Doyle rolls up the ice box lid to see poor Paddy's mug
We stopped the clock so Mrs. Murphy couldn't tell the time
And at a quarter after two we argued it was nine
They stopped the hearse on George Street outside Sundance Saloon
They all went in at half past eight and staggered out at noon
They went up to the graveyard, so holy and sublime
Found out when they got there, they'd left the corpse behind!
Oh the night that Paddy Murphy died, is a night I'll never forget
Some of the boys got loaded drunk and they ain't been sober yet;
As long as a bottle was passed around every man was feelin' gay
O'Leary came with the bagpipes, some music for to play
In the words of his brother, Robert:
" Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet, it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change."
Ted Kennedy's life was an embodiment of this statement in that he willingly risked the wrath of those who opposed him on a daily basis, knowing that it was a small price to pay to lift up those in need through involvement in other centered public service. His example of public service through politics was exactly as his brother John had envisioned it, the highest calling of all--and ultimately, his responsibility to make the best of the exceptional opportunities afforded him.
Though many will sully his vision through their self centered ambition and snide and useless bickering let us remember his example as one that truly was the embodiment of how political service can truly deliver equity and justice for all.
i truly enjoyed last night's wake and entertainment!
learned a lot of great stories and history... and did a LOT of laughing...
thankful that mcLIAR kept his speech short - after watching his exit from his car upon arrival, i thought it would be another campaign speech...
at the other end was orrin hatch... went a little (?) too long, but still kept it entertaining...
this morning's funeral mass was very moving and special - 3 very damp kleenexes as testament...
his son's and president obama's speeches were great, awesome...
i've learned much and enjoyed it all...
And after he was done walked off without any condolences to Kennedy's widow, an intentional act of ingratitude. I'm sure he thought giving this speech was just something he was compelled to do and giving tribute to a man that was infinitely greater than him was a real pain in the ass. That's how self centered and petty he really is.
Sorry Johnny, but everyone gets what they deserve, that's why you lost the election. Ted will be remembered for his greatness long after mediocre pretenders like you have passed on.
. . . that there was no mention of Joan, the first Mrs. Kennedy, either last night or today at the church. None that I heard, anyway. Not even her sons mentioned their Mom. Surely it wasn't only Ted who held a cool cloth to his son Patrick's head while suffering his youthful headaches from his asthma meds.
Joan is said to be a reclusive woman with a very persistent alcohol problem. She paid a very high price for her marriage to Ted Kennedy. But she bore his children and their character is a reflection of her as well as Ted. I hope her exclusion from the family story is her wish and not the result of embarassment.
as i posted earlier, at ThinkProgress:
i just want to say thank you, to the first priest talking in the beginning -
he welcomed the family and guests, but most importantly to me,
he acknowledged ted's children, teddy, kara, and patrick,
"and your mother, joan"...
that was the first i'd heard her mentioned in these services by anyone and
i think it was so important and special that she was acknowledged and therefore honored... the mother of his children.
again, thank you, father...
Whassa difference between an Irish Wake, and Jews Keeping Shiva
Besides the gefilte fish?
Oh...oh...I think I know...
It's when a Irishman gets so drunk he tries to drink from your aquarium.
Login or Register to post comments.