The most staunch and energetic defenders of democracy have this kind of shadowy past.

By contrast, at Limerick the following year, he had that city's most energetic defenders hanged.

Since 1950, he was an energetic defender of Atatürk's reforms, democracy and laicism.

Salman Rushdie, it ought to be remembered, has been an energetic defender of the rights of Asian and Muslim minorities in a nominally Christian England.

James Carville, who for years was perhaps Mr. Clinton's most energetic defender, refused to rise to his defense in an interview yesterday.

He was an energetic defender of the rights and the privileges of Catholics, and one of the first to champion the freedom of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands.

There she is seen as an energetic, moderate defender of local interests.

By the time Mr. Ferguson was brought to trial, he had gained both passionate followers and angry adversaries as an energetic defender of what became known as "community control" of the schools.

Besides her reputation as a loyal, energetic and telegenic defender of the faith, she now has the experience of an insider.

It also found energetic defenders.