Conor Cruise O'Brien (Irish: Conchubhar Crús Ó
Briain (known affectionately as 'The Cruiser'); born 3 November, 1917) is an Irish politician, writer and academic.
Biography
Early life
O'Brien was born in Dublin, Ireland, to Francis ("Frank")
Cruise O'Brien and Kathleen Sheehy. Frank, a journalist with the Freeman's
Journal and Irish Independent newspapers, had also edited some of
William Lecky's historical studies of European nationalism[citation needed]. Kathleen was an Irish language teacher and daughter of David Sheehy, a member of the
Irish Parliamentary Party and organizer of the Irish National Land League. She had three sisters, all of whom lost their husbands in the
watershed year of 1916. These included Hanna, wife of murdered pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, and Mary, wife of
Thomas Kettle, a member of the Royal Dublin
Fusiliers who died during the Battle of the Somme.
O'Brien's father made his wife promise to send their son to Sandford Park
School[citation needed], despite the inevitable objections of the local Catholic clergy[citation needed]. O'Brien subsequently attended
Trinity College Dublin which, like Sandford Park, was neither Catholic or
nationalist in ethos. O'Brien was editor of Trinity's weekly, . His first wife was Christine Foster, who came from a Belfast Presbyterian family. They were married in a register office in 1939, which was contrary to Catholic teachings.
Civil service
O'Brien's university education led to a series of appointments in the public service, most notably in the Department of
External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs).
O'Brien became something of an anomalous iconoclast in post-1922 Irish politics, particularly in the context of government by
Éamon de Valera's Fianna Fáil party, since those
who did not conform to Catholic mores were generally not preferred in the public service
appointment process at the time[citation needed].
In the Department of External Affairs, O'Brien served as a diplomat under the pro-physical force republican, Seán MacBride, the Nobel Peace Laureate of 1974. McBride was the son of John
MacBride and Maud Gonne. O'Brien was particularly vocal on the anti-partition issue during the 1940s.
International postings
O'Brien came to world prominence as a special representative to Dag Hammarskjöld,
Secretary General of the United Nations, when, in 1961,
Katanga tried to secede from what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. See the Congo
Crisis. Under pressure from a range of international interests, he eventually resigned and wrote To Katanga and
Back (1962) which is still considered a classic of both modern African history and
the inner workings of the United Nations.
From 1962 to 1965 he was Chancellor of the University of Ghana. Following this he
was the first Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities at New York University until 1969.
Irish politics
O'Brien returned to Ireland and in the 1969 general election was elected
to Dáil Éireann as a member of the Labour Party, representing the Dublin North East constituency together with three other TDs, including Charles Haughey. He was appointed a member of the
short-lived first delegation from the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) to the European Parliament.
Following the 1973 general election, O'Brien was appointed
Minister for Posts & Telegraphs in the coalition
Cosgrave government. During this period he developed a deep hostility to militant
Irish republicanism. He extended and vigorously enforced censorship of the media,
banning members of Sinn Féin and the Provisional Irish Republican Army from being interviewed on Irish radio or television
(Section 31). At the same time, he attempted to get Britain's BBC 1 television channel broadcast
on Ireland's proposed second television channel. [1]
His stance caused controversy within and outside the government. In the
1977 general election O'Brien lost his Dáil seat, but he was subsequently elected to Seanad
Éireann (1977 to 1979).
Polemics and Academia
Between 1979 and 1981 O'Brien was editor-in-chief of The Observer newspaper in
Britain. He held visiting professorships and lectureships throughout the world, particularly in the United States, and controversially in apartheid South Africa.
A persistent critic of Charles Haughey, O'Brien coined the acronym GUBU (Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented), based on a statement by Charles Haughey, who was then
Taoiseach, commenting on the discovery of a murder suspect[2] in the apartment of the Fianna Fáil Attorney
General Patrick Connolly. Haughey's short lived government from March to
December 1982 became known as the GUBU period.
Until 1994 O'Brien was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dublin.
Unionism
In 1996, he joined Robert McCartney's United Kingdom Unionist Party and was elected to the Northern
Ireland Forum. He later resigned after publishing an extract from his book Memoir: My Life and Themes in which he called
on Unionists to consider the benefits of a United Ireland to thwart Sinn Féin. In 2005 he
rejoined the Labour Party.
Writings
Conor Cruise O'Brien's many books include: his picture of the politics of polarisation States of Ireland (1972), The
Great Melody (1992), his unorthodox biography of Edmund Burke (a figure with whom he
feels a great affinity, as Burke is apparently one of his ancestors [citation needed]), and his Memoir: My Life and Themes (1998). He also published a
collection of essays, Cunning and Passion (1986), which includes a substantial piece on the literary work of
William Butler Yeats and some challenging views on the subject of terrorism. Perhaps his most controversial work is The Siege (1989), a sympathetic history of
Zionism and the State of Israel. His books, particularly those
on Irish issues, tend to be very involved and personal such as States of Ireland where he made the link between the
political success of the republican Easter Rising and the consequent demise of his
Home Rule family's position in society. His private papers have been deposited in
the University College Dublin Archives.
He is a long time columnist for the Sunday Independent and his articles
have been distinguished by hostility to the peace process in Northern Ireland, regular predictions of civil war in the
Republic of Ireland and an openly pro-Unionist stance. In 1997, a libel action was brought against him by relatives of Bloody Sunday victims for alleging in one article that the marchers were "Sinn Féin activists
operating for the IRA" [1]
In 1963, O'Brien's script for a Telefís Éireann programme on Charles Stewart Parnell won him a Jacob's Award.[3]
Legacy
O'Brien had three children with his first wife Christine Foster -- Donal, Fedelma, and Kathleen (Kate), who died in 1996. O'Brien's second wife, is the
Irish-language writer and poet Máire Mhac an
tSaoi. She is five years his junior, and the daughter of former TD and Tánaiste,
Seán MacEntee; they have a son (Patrick) and a daughter (Margaret), both adopted.
See also
Works
- Maria Cross (as Donat O'Donnell) (1954)
- To Katanga and Back (1962)
- States of Ireland (1972) ISBN 978-0091131005
- The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism (1986) ISBN 978-0671633103
- Passion & Cunning: Essays on Nationalism, Terrorism, and Revolution (1988)
- The Great Melody: A Thematic Biography of Edmund Burke (1992). ISBN 0-226-61651-7
- On the Eve of the Millennium (1994). ISBN 978-0887845598
- The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800 (1996)
ISBN 978-0712666831
- Memoir: My Life and Themes (1998) ISBN 978-1853719479
Máire and Conor Cruise O'Brien:
- A Concise History of Ireland Thames and Hudson, London ISBN 0-500-45011-0 (1972)
Notes
- ^ See The Oireachtas Debates for more information on O'Brien's BBC 1 campaign.
- ^ Malcolm McArthur subsequently
convicted of murder.
- ^ The Irish Times, "Presentation of television awards and citations",
December 4, 1963
External links
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