LARRY King hosted countless politicians during his television career but the interview which gained most notoriety in Ireland was the 1994 encounter with Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.
Ken Maginnis, a senior Ulster Unionist at the time, was also grilled by King on the same show, setting the combative tone from the outset by refusing to shake the Sinn Féin leader's hand.
The interview took place in October, a matter of weeks after the IRA called its first ceasefire. Mr Adams was regarded as a media sensation, attracting huge attention whenever he appeared publicly.
King, who tended to talk to politicians like they were celebrities, treated the Sinn Féin leader "as an Irish Nelson Mandela", one Irish journalist later wrote.
Much of the interview, which included questions phoned in by the American public, focused on Mr Adams's bona fides and the permanence of the ceasefire.
"Well, can't you say the ceasefire is permanent?" King asked.
"I can say that I want the permanent peace. I can say we need to build on this," Mr Adams responded.
The CNN host asked the Sinn Féin leader if he would apologise for "past actions"?
"I am prepared to apologise for all those - to all those who have been hurt, who have been killed," he responded.
An academic conversation on whether John Hume was worthy of the Nobel Peace prize followed before decommissioning, an issue that would dominate discussions for the next decade, was raised.
Mr Adams offered his hand to his unionist adversary once more but the Ulster Unionist insisted "I'm not going to be involved in gimmicks."
The interview was neither a runaway success or an unmitigated disaster for Mr Adams, but without doubt it represented a major coup for Irish republicanism, which for the previous quarter of a century had been ostracised by the mainstream US media.
