You'll have to excuse me if some of the minor details of this are wrong but...
Back in the mid/late 80's IIRC, Ted Kennedy was in Belfast on one of his "Lets show the world how evil the brits are for oppressing the Irish" visits, when, along with a group of Press he tried to go stomping through somewhere that had been cordoned off when he was stopped by a squaddie, he tried the "Do you know who I am" routime and got the reply
"I don't give a toss who you are - sod off"
Unfortunately, there was a definate "Oh the por Irish" sentiment especially on the east coast of the US which left a very wide base for NORAID to fund raise from.
After Enniskillen, it began to dry up.
Ted Kennedy was like most Americans claiming to have an opinion on the situation in Northern Ireland, utterly clueless, something that frankly, the vast majority of Brits, (myself included) are as well. Hell, even those that have lived with it all their lives barely seem to understand what's going on.
However, the mighty dollar in the form of Ted Kennedy did help to get some of the parties to the table, just as a lot of behind the scenes not very subtle blackmail was used to get some of the other parties to the table.
Worth a knighthood? Probably not, but then when you have a government who spent more time arse kissing an American government only slightly to the left of Ghengis Kahn, giving a title and a bit of tin to a Democrat big wig is a nice way to brown-nose your way back into favour.
Oh yes, the shooting, was that the IRA, Provisional IRA, the Real IRA, the Continuity IRA or the I can't believe it's not the IRA?
I don't really give a fuck that some yank has been given an honourary title that he can't use except at parties or in the paper.
Where ever there has been wars/terrorist attrocities/genocide/killings then there has to be a catalyst of someone from somewhere to push people along to stop killing each other. Some will think that person is a saviour and others will think he is an interfering busybody and did not know the cause of the troubles.
So you will get people who agree that he should get an award and others that believe he shouldn't. Live with your different opinions.
Dave_Notts