Mitchell Reiss.

Accolades poured forth from all corners of the world while

for Irish Americans, Kennedy's passing marked the end of what ultimately became a glorious success story of one of their own, a man who never forget his Irish roots.

Senator Kennedy's persuasion and activism in the effort to bring peace to Northern Ireland in the 1990's was instrumental in guiding then President Bill Clinton into the delicate negotiations that helped to produce the Good Friday peace agreement.

Although credited for helping persuade the Clinton White House to issue a visa to Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams, and for propelling his sister, Jean Kennedy Smith, into the role of U.S. ambassador to Ireland, it was how Kennedy "sealed the deal" of the Irish peace process that most struck one experienced observer.

"Senator Kennedy was clear-eyed and courageous," recalled former Northern Ireland special envoy under the Bush administration, Mitchell Reiss.

Reiss asserted that Kennedy's refusal to meet Adams in 2005, this in the aftermath of the murder in Belfast of Robert McCartney by men linked to the IRA, prompted others on Capitol Hill to pressure the Sinn Féin leader on the crucial issues of decommissioning and policing, a united front that would be followed by Adams calling on the IRA to turn in their weapons and later his party's pivotal move in accepting a new policing and justice dispensation in the North.

Nancy Soderberg worked for Senator Kennedy from 1985 to 1992. During that time, many Irish leaders from both sides of the border made their pilgrimage to the senator's office.

No Sinn Féin officials were invited in those days, reflected Soderberg.

Kennedy had long been a supporter of the SDLP's John Hume. The Kennedy family's own losses from violence had deterred him from supporting Sinn Féin which was still supporting the IRA's armed struggle in Northern Ireland.

"Later, when I was on the National Security Council, it was his (Kennedy's) change in position on whether to engage Adams that convinced me, and most importantly President Bill Clinton, to do the same," said Soderberg.

Trina Vargo served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator Kennedy from 1987 to 1998. She worked a great deal on Irish issues for him and left to found and become president of the US-Ireland Alliance.

In the aftermath of Kennedy's death, she reflected on the role Kennedy played in her life as a staffer. Her thoughts mirror the sentiments of almost all who worked for him over 47 years in the Senate.

"Personally, he gave me, at a very young age, an incredible opportunity to be a part of making a difference in a way that few people get," said Vargo.

"I told him when I left his employ that, no matter what I did with the rest of my life, the way that I see things would, to a very great extent, be shaped by the way that I learned to see things by working with him.

"And for that I feel honored and privileged, but most of all I feel incredibly lucky that he allowed me to be a part of his work," she said.

At Kennedy's final resting place at Arlington Cemetery this week, the new grave did not actually look new.

The sward surrounding the flat marble slab with his name and the single white cross a few feet away matches the rest of the grassy expanse that slopes upward towards his brother Robert's site and JFK's eternal flame.

The three Kennedy boys have been reunited, their rest now ever peaceful and for ever connected.