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| - John F. Kennedy's last surviving sibling, Jean Kennedy Smith -- who was instrumental in bringing peace to Northern Ireland -- has died aged 92. Smith, who served as United States ambassador to Ireland in the 1990s, passed away on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan, The New York Times said. "She led an amazing life," her daughter Kym Smith told NBC News in a statement. Born in February 1928, Smith was the eighth of nine children born into what became America's most famous political dynasty. Her siblings included the late president Kennedy and his younger brothers, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy. After spending much of her life as a socialite away from the political spotlight, Smith was in 1993 named the US ambassador in Dublin by then president Bill Clinton. The appointment raised a few eyebrows but Smith, whose father Joseph P Kennedy had been ambassador to Britain when she was young, embraced her role, shaking it up along the way. She frequently met with Gerry Adams, the leader of the Irish Republican Army's political wing Sinn Fein, even although US policy was not to do so. Smith is credited with helping him get a visa to visit the US, where he made the case for a ceasefire in the conflict in Northern Ireland. She played a key role in paving the way for the later negotiations that resulted in the Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement. The historic accord largely ended the violence that had plagued Northern Ireland since the 1960s. pdh/dw
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