Historian, critic, and Irish statesman, born in Dublin, Ireland. He studied at Dublin, and became an outstanding historian and critic. His best-known work is To Katanga and Back (1962), an autobiographical narrative of the Congo crisis of 1961. An MP from 1969, he became minister for posts and telegraphs (19737). He was subsequently editor-in-chief of The Observer, as well as the author of studies on Albert Camus and Edmund Burke, and remains a contributor to a wide variety of print media.
Conor Cruise O'Brien (Irish: Conchubhar Crús Ó Briain;
Early life
O'Brien was born in Dublin, Ireland to nominally Catholic parents, Francis ("Frank") Cruise O'Brien and Kathleen Sheehy. 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.
O'Brien's father made his wife promise to send their son to Sandford Park School, despite the inevitable objections of the local Catholic clergy. O'Brien subsequently attended Trinity College Dublin which, like Sandford Park, was neither Catholic or nationalist in ethos.
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.
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. 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.
From 1962 to 1965 he was Chancellor of the University of Ghana.
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.
Following the 1973 general election, O'Brien was appointed Minister for Posts & 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.
His stance caused controversy within and outside the government. In the 1977 general election O'Brien lost his Dáil seat, but he was subseqently elected to Seanad Éireann.
In later years he would be elected to the Northern Ireland Forum as part of Robert McCartney's UK Unionist Party. making it seem that his motives for joining the UKUP were more based on hatred of the IRA and militant Irish Republicanism than on support for Ulster Unionism
Polemics and Academia
Between 1979 and 1981 O'Brien was editor-in-chief of The Observer newspaper in Britain.
Until 1994 O'Brien was pro-vice chancellor of the University of Dublin.
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 revisionist biography of Edmund Burke (a figure with whom he feels a great personal affinity, as Burke is apparently one of his ancestors ), and his Memoir: My Life and Themes (1998). 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.
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 Fein activists operating for the IRA"
Legacy
O'Brien's 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.
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