Conor Cruise O'Brien | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Cruise O'Brien in 1973 | |
| Member of theNorthern Ireland Forum | |
| In office 30 May 1996 – 25 April 1998 | |
| Constituency | Top-up list |
| Minister for Posts and Telegraphs | |
| In office 14 March 1973 – 5 July 1977 | |
| Taoiseach | Liam Cosgrave |
| Preceded by | Gerry Collins |
| Succeeded by | Pádraig Faulkner |
| Senator | |
| In office 27 October 1977 – 13 June 1979 | |
| Constituency | Dublin University |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office June 1969 – June 1977 | |
| Constituency | Dublin North-East |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 1 January 1973 – 23 March 1973 | |
| Constituency | Oireachtas |
| Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana | |
| In office 1962–1965 | |
| Preceded by | Raymond Henry Stoughton |
| Succeeded by | Alexander Kwapong |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Donal Conor David Dermot Donat Cruise O'Brien (1917-11-03)3 November 1917 |
| Died | 18 December 2008(2008-12-18) (aged 91) Howth, Dublin, Ireland |
| Political party | Labour Party |
| Other political affiliations | UK Unionist Party (1996–1998) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5, includingKate |
| Alma mater | Trinity College Dublin |
Donal Conor David Dermot Donat Cruise O'Brien (3 November 1917 – 18 December 2008[1]), often nicknamed "The Cruiser",[2] was anIrish diplomat, politician, writer, historian and academic, who served asMinister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1973 to 1977, aSenator forDublin University from 1977 to 1979, aTeachta Dála (TD) for theDublin North-East constituency from 1969 to 1977, and aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) from January 1973 to March 1973.
His opinion of Britain's role inIreland subsequent to the partition of the island and the independence of theFree State in 1921 changed during the 1970s, in response to the outbreak ofThe Troubles. He now saw opposing nationalist and unionist traditions as irreconcilable, and switched from anationalist to aunionist view of Irish politics and history, and from opposition to support for partition. Cruise O'Brien's outlook was radical and seldom orthodox. He summarised his position as intending "to administer an electric shock to the Irishpsyche".[3]
Internationally, though a long-standing member of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, he opposed in person theAfrican National Congress's academic boycott of theapartheid regime inSouth Africa.[4] Views that he espoused during and after the 1970s contrasted with those he articulated during the 1950s and 1960s.
During his 1945–1961 career as a civil servant, Cruise O'Brien promoted the government's anti-partition campaign. In the 1960s he was associated with the 'New Left' and opposition to US military involvement in Vietnam. At the1969 general election he was elected toDáil Éireann as aLabour PartyTD forDublin North-East. He served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, with responsibility for broadcasting, between 1973 and 1977 in a coalition government.[5] During those years he was also the Labour Party'sNorthern Ireland spokesman. Cruise O'Brien was later known primarily as an author and as anIrish Independent andSunday Independent columnist.
Conor Cruise O'Brien was born at 44 Leinster Road,Rathmines, Dublin, to Francis ("Frank") Cruise O'Brien and the formerKathleen Sheehy.[6] Frank was a journalist with theFreeman's Journal andIrish Independent newspapers, and had edited an essay written 50 years earlier byWilliam Lecky concerning the influence of the clergy on Irish politics.[7] Kathleen was a teacher of theIrish language. She was the daughter ofDavid Sheehy, a member of theIrish Parliamentary Party and organiser of theIrish National Land League. She had three sisters, Hanna, Margaret and Mary.Hanna's husband, the well-knownpacifist and supporter of women's suffrageFrancis Sheehy-Skeffington, was executed by firing squad on the orders of Captain J.C Bowen Colthurst during the 1916Easter Rising.[8][9] Soon afterwards Mary's husband,Thomas Kettle, an officer of theRoyal Dublin Fusiliers in theFirst World War, was killed during theBattle of the Somme. These women, Hanna and Kathleen in particular, were a major influence on Cruise O'Brien's upbringing, alongside Hanna's son,Owen Sheehy-Skeffington.[10]
Cruise O'Brien's father died in 1927. He wanted Conor educated, like Conor's cousin Owen, inSandford Park School that had a predominantly Protestant ethos, a wish Kathleen honoured.[11] despite objections from Catholic clergy.[12] Cruise O'Brien subsequently attendedTrinity College Dublin, which played the British national anthem until 1939. While others stood, he and Sheehy-Skeffington sat in protest on such occasions.[13] Cruise O'Brien waselected a scholar in Modern Languages at Trinity in 1937 and was editor of Trinity's weekly,TCD: A College Miscellany.
His first wife, Christine Foster, from aBelfastPresbyterian family, was, like her father, a member of theGaelic League. Her parents,Alexander (Alec) Roulston Foster and Anne (Annie) Lynd, were, in Cruise O'Brien's description, "Home Rulers; a very advanced position for any Protestants in the period".[14] Alec Foster was at the time headmaster ofBelfast Royal Academy; he was later a founding member of theWolfe Tone Society,[15] and was a strong supporter of the Irish Anti-Apartheid movement.[16] He was a former Ulster, Ireland and British & Irish Lions rugby player, having captained Ireland three times between 1912 and 1914. Cruise O'Brien and Christine Foster were married in aregistry office in 1939. The couple had three children: Donal, Fedelma, andKathleen (Kate), who died in 1998. The marriage ended in divorce after 20 years.
In 1962, Cruise O'Brien married the Irish-language writer and poetMáire Mhac an tSaoi in a Roman Catholic church. Cruise O'Brien's divorce, though contrary to Roman Catholic teaching, was not an issue because that church did not recognise the validity of his 1939 civil wedding. He referred to this action, which in effect formally de-recognised the legitimacy of his former wife and their children, as "hypocritical ... and otherwise distasteful, but I took it, as preferable to the alternatives".[17] Mac an tSaoi was five years his junior, and the daughter ofSeán MacEntee, who wasTánaiste (deputy prime minister) at the time. The couple subsequently adopted two children of Irish-African parentage, a son (Patrick) and a daughter (Margaret).
Cruise O'Brien's university education led to a career in the public service, most notably in theDepartment of External Affairs. He achieved distinction as managing director of the state-run Irish News Agency and later as part of the fledgling Irish delegation to theUnited Nations. He later claimed he was something of an anomalous iconoclast in post-1922 Irish politics, particularly in the context ofFianna Fáil governments underÉamon de Valera.
Cruise O'Brien wrote that the then Secretary of the department, Joseph P. Walshe, might well have considered that Cruise O'Brien was "no fit person to be a member of Catholic Ireland's Department of External Affairs". Cruise O'Brien attributed his appointment "to a decision taken at a higher level. Under God, there was only one higher level. This consisted of Eamon de Valera, then Minister for External Affairs as well as Taoiseach." Cruise O'Brien speculated that de Valera's Catholicism may have been conditioned by his excommunication during the Civil War of 1922/3, that he may have felt that Walshe had been too close to the previous government, and that he may have been conscious of the nationalist credentials of the Sheehy family, notably Cruise O'Brien's great-uncle, Father Eugene Sheehy, who had been parish priest of Bruree during de Valera's formative years. De Valera later wrote of Father Sheehy, "Eisean a mhúin an tírgrá dhom" (It was he who taught me patriotism).[18]
Cruise O'Brien wrote of his entry into the public service: "The time when I joined the Department of Finance was the first time, since my First Communion, that I found myself in a working environment which was mainly – indeed almost entirely – Catholic".[19] As he admitted, his non-belief did not impede his career, which ended at ambassadorial level. He observed,
There was nothing unusual even then about not believing in Catholicism. What was unusual then was to acknowledge publicly that you did not believe in Catholicism ... It is interesting that this did absolutely no harm to my public career around the mid-century – a time when the authority of a triumphant Catholic Church appeared to be overwhelmingly strong, in the media and in public life. But I think many educated people – including many in the public service – already resented that authority and, while being discreet about this themselves, had some respect for a person who publicly rejected it altogether.[20]
In the Department of External Affairs, during the1948–1951 inter-party government, he served underSeán MacBride, son ofJohn MacBride andMaud Gonne,republican and former IRA Chief of Staff. Cruise O'Brien was particularly vocal in opposition topartition during the 1940s and 1950s, as part of his official duties.
He came to prominence in 1961, after his secondment from Ireland's UN delegation as a special representative toDag Hammarskjöld,Secretary General of the United Nations, in theKatanga region of the newly independent Congo (now theDemocratic Republic of the Congo). Cruise O'Brien accused a combination of British, French and white Rhodesian elements of attempting to partition off Katanga as a pro-Western client state. He used military force to oppose a combination of western mercenaries and Katangan forces.[citation needed]
Cruise O'Brien arrived inÉlisabethville (modernLubumbashi) on 14 June 1961, making him the UN's point man for dealing withMoïse Tshombe, the leader of the self-proclaimed independentÉtat du Katanga.[21] TheKasaïBaluba people who formed the majority of the people in northern Katanga were solid supporters of a united Congo, and were the subjects of a ruthless campaign of repression waged by the white mercenaries hired by Tshombe, together with the Katangese gendarmerie. The UN refugee camps were soon overcrowded with thousands of Kasai Baluba people who fled into the refugee camps for their safety.[21] From the viewpoint of O'Brien and other UN personnel, the sooner the crisis was ended, the sooner the refugees could go home. On 28 August 1961,Operation Rum Punch was launched to remove the mercenaries from Katanga as the first step towards reintegrating Katanga into the Congo.[21] On 11 September, Mahmoud Khiary, the chief of the UN mission, gave O'Brien orders to arrest several leading figures within the Etat du Katanga.[21] On 13 September 1961,Operation Morthor was launched, which led Cruise O'Brien to assert prematurely at a press conference that the secession of Katanga was at an end.[21] Tshombe was ordered to be arrested, but he was able to escape via the British consul in Élisabethville to the British colony of Northern Rhodesia (modern Zambia) from whence he returned to Katanga.[21]
In September 1961, a company of 155 Irish UN troops ("A" Company, 35th Battalion,Irish Army), was surrounded by a force of heavily armed Gendarmerie and mercenaries outnumbering them 20-to-one inJadotville. The Irish soldiers, many of them still in their teens, were lightly armed, short of ammunition and supplies, and unprepared for the situation. They had been sent to the newly independent Republic of Congo on what was supposed to be a peacekeeping mission but were ordered to the offensive by the UN's most senior diplomat on the ground, Cruise O'Brien, acting on the instructions of the Secretary General, who wanted the Katanga problem solved before the upcoming United Nations General Assembly, as his career was on the line.[citation needed]
The Irish troops held out for six days before they ran out of bullets and drinking water. When water finally reached them, it came in old petrol cans that had not been cleaned, making it undrinkable. The troops inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy force but suffered no fatalities themselves. After their surrender, they spent just over one month in captivity unsure of their fate, and when they arrived back in Ireland, were dismayed and deeply hurt to learn that the UN and their own government were anxious to sweep the episode under the carpet to protect the reputation and to conceal the failures of the UN in preparing for combat and liberating Company A.[citation needed]
Cruise O'Brien wrote immediately about his experiences inThe Observer of London and inThe New York Times on 10 and 17 December 1961. Armed with the archive material, one expert concluded Hammarskjöld "knew in advance that the UN was about to take action in Katanga and he authorised that action".[22] This is contradicted in a 2022 book on the Congo crisis by historianWilhelm Agrell.[23]
Faced with the failure of Operation Morthor, Hammarskjöld was on his way toNdola to meet Tshombe to discuss a ceasefire, but was killed when his airplane crashed during the journey. Cruise O'Brien wrote: "in Élisabethville I do not think there was anyone who believed that his death was an accident".[21]
A UN crisis ensued, and Cruise O'Brien was forced to step down simultaneously from his UN position and the Irish diplomatic service in late 1961. He went public immediately with his version of events, writing simultaneously inThe Observer (London) and theNew York Times that, "My resignation from the United Nations and from the Irish foreign service is a result of British government policy".[24]
Michael Ignatieff asserted that Hammarskjöld had misjudged O'Brien's abilities as UN representative and that O'Brien's use of military force provided the Soviets and the US with ammunition in their campaign against the UN Secretary General and against UN actions in opposition to the interests of the big powers.[citation needed] Faced with the complexities of the political situation of the United Nations in the Congo, O'Brien had failed to understand and in turn exceeded the authority granted to ONUC by the Secretary-General and the Security Council. Hammarskjöld first learned of the operation via press dispatch in Accra — after the operation had already begun — and his initial reaction was to dismiss the report as erroneous since it was clearly in violation of his instructions.[25]
After Cruise O'Brien's recall from UN service and his resignation from the Irish civil service, he served as Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Ghana. He resigned after he fell out with the Chancellor and President of Ghana,Kwame Nkrumah, in 1965. He was initially sympathetic towards Nkrumah, who won Ghana's independence from the British empire in 1957, but fell out with him due to his authoritarianism and his promotion of the ideology of 'Nkrumahism', in which all Ghanaians were expected to believe.[21] Cruise O'Brien sought to protect academic freedom against Nkrumahism, saying in a speech before the students of the University of Ghana that all intellectuals have a duty to promote the truth and that "These are not European values; these are universal values."[21]
He was then appointed Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities atNew York University, a position he held until 1969. During the 1960s O'Brien was an active opponent of US involvement in Vietnam. He supported the right of the Vietnamese people to use violence against US armed forces. At a 1967 Vietnam War symposium O'Brien clashed withHannah Arendt, who had remarked, "As to the Viet Cong terror, we cannot possibly agree with it". O'Brien responded, "I think there is a distinction between the use of terror by oppressed peoples against the oppressors and their servants, in comparison with the use of terror by their oppressors in the interests of further oppression. I think there is a qualitative distinction there which we have the right to make."
Besides the Vietnam War, Cruise O'Brien opposed what he saw as the overtly too passive opposition of the U.S. government to the white supremacist governments of Rhodesia and South Africa, charging that all the reaction the U.S. government ever made was to politely deplore the policies of the two governments.[21] In September 1967, he flew to the self-proclaimed Republic ofBiafra to express his support for Ibo separatism.[21] In articles inThe Observer andThe New York Review of Books, he argued that there were important differences between the Republic of Biafra and the State of Katanga, and that there was no equivalence between the two breakaway states.[21] He argued that Biafra represented the sincere wish of the Ibo people to leave Nigeria, while Katanga was a sham.
In December 1967, Cruise O'Brien was front-page news inThe Irish Times, which reported his arrest while demonstrating against the war in New York, and his being kicked by a policeman.[21] He joked about the policeman who assaulted him: "no prizes for guessing his ethnicity".[21] In 1968, he campaigned for SenatorEugene McCarthy who sought the Democratic nomination in the presidential election of that year on a platform of ending the Vietnam War.[21] In May of that year, Cruise O'Brien condemned police attacks on and harassment of the militant, armed,Black Panther Party.[26][27]
Between January and March 1969, he offered refuge at his home in Howth to German socialist student leader, and anti-Vietnam War activist,Rudi Dutschke and his wifeGretchen. In April the previous year Dutschke had been shot and badly injured by a right-wing assassin in West Berlin, but was subsequently denied visas by a number of European countries, including Britain. During their stay, the Dutschkes were visited by their lawyerHorst Mahler, who tried and failed to persuade them to support him underground in the group that was to become theRed Army Faction (the "Baader Meinhof Gang").[28]
Cruise O'Brien returned to Ireland and in the1969 general election was elected toDáil Éireann as a member of the oppositionLabour Party inDublin North-East,[29] taking the second of that constituency's four seats behindFianna FáilMinister for FinanceCharles Haughey, whose probity in financial matters he questioned.[30] He was appointed a member of the short-livedfirst delegation from theOireachtas to the European Parliament. After the 1973 general election, Fine Gael and Labour formed acoalition government under TaoiseachLiam Cosgrave, in which Cruise O'Brien was appointed asMinister for Posts and Telegraphs.
After the outbreak of armed conflict in Northern Ireland in 1969, Cruise O'Brien developed a deep hostility to militantIrish republicanism and to Irish nationalists generally in Northern Ireland, which reversed the views that he articulated at the outset of the unrest.[31][32] He also reversed his opposition to broadcasting censorship imposed by the previous government, by extending and vigorously enforcing censorship ofRaidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) underSection 31 of the Broadcasting Act.[33] In 1976, he specifically banned spokespersons forSinn Féin and theProvisional Irish Republican Army from RTÉ.[citation needed] At the same time, he unsuccessfully attempted to have Britain'sBBC 1 broadcast on Ireland's proposed second television channel, instead of allowing RTÉ to run it.[34][35]
Two additional notable incidents affected Cruise O'Brien's career as minister, besides his support for broadcasting censorship.
In August 1976,Bernard Nossiter ofThe Washington Post interviewed him on the passage of an Emergency Powers Bill. During the course of the interview, Cruise O'Brien revealed an intention to extend censorship beyond broadcasting. He wished to "cleanse the culture" of republicanism and said that he would like the bill to be used against teachers who allegedly glorified Irish revolutionaries. He also wanted it used against newspaper editors who published pro-republican or anti-British readers' letters.[36] Cruise O'Brien mentionedThe Irish Press as a newspaper against which he particularly hoped to use the legislation against and produced a file ofIrish Press letters to the editor to which he took exception. Nossiter immediately informedThe Irish Press editorTim Pat Coogan of Cruise O'Brien's intentions. Coogan printed Nossiter's report (as didThe Irish Times), republished the letters to which Cruise O'Brien objected and ran a number of strong editorials attacking Cruise O'Brien and the proposed legislation. The interview caused huge controversy and resulted in the modification of the measure appearing to target newspapers.[37]
Cruise O'Brien also supportedGarda Síochána brutality from 1973 to 1977, but that was not revealed by Cruise O'Brien until 1998 in hisMemoir.[38] InMemoir: My Life and Themes, Cruise O'Brien recalled a conversation with a detective who told him how the Gardaí had found out from a suspect the location of businessmanTiede Herrema, who had been kidnapped by group of maverick republicans in October 1975: "the escort started asking him questions and when at first he refused to answer, they beat the shit out of him. Then he told them where Herrema was"."/ Cruise O'Brien explained, "I refrained from telling this story to [ministerial colleagues]Garret [FitzGerald] orJustin [Keating], because I thought it would worry them. It didn't worry me".[39] Elements of the Garda that engaged in beating false confessions out of suspects quickly became known as the "Heavy Gang".[40][41]
Cruise O'Brien's constituency was re-drawn as part of his Labour colleague James Tully's attempt asMinister for Local Government to design boundaries in the electoral interests of the coalition partners. The plan backfired. In the1977 general election, he stood inDublin Clontarf and was one of three ministers (the others being Justin Keating and Patrick Cooney) defeated in a rout of the outgoing administration.[42] He was subsequently elected toSeanad Éireann in 1977 for theDublin University constituency. He was dropped as Labour's Northern Ireland spokesperson. O'Brien resigned his seat in 1979 because of new commitments as editor-in-chief ofThe Observer newspaper in London.
Between 1978 and 1981, Cruise O'Brien was editor-in-chief ofThe Observer newspaper in Britain. In 1979 he refused to publish anObserver article byMary Holland, the paper's Ireland correspondent. Holland, whose reporting won her a Journalist of the Year award, had been one of the first journalists to explain discrimination in Northern Ireland to a British audience. The article was a profile ofMary Nelis of Derry and dealt with her radicalisation as a result of the conflict. Cruise O'Brien objected and sent Holland a memo stating that the "killing strain" of Irish republicanism "has a very high propensity to run in families and the mother is most often the carrier".[13] The memo continued, "It is a very serious weakness of your coverage of Irish affairs that you are a very poor judge of Irish Catholics. That gifted and talkative community includes some of the most expert conmen and conwomen in the world and I believe you have been conned".[43][44] Holland was forced out of the newspaper by Cruise O'Brien.[45] She later joinedThe Irish Times as a columnist. She also rejoinedThe Observer after Cruise O'Brien's departure in 1981.[46]
In 1985, Cruise O'Brien supported unionist objections to the inter-governmentalAnglo-Irish Agreement. In 1996 he joinedRobert McCartney'sUnited Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP) and was elected to theNorthern Ireland Forum. In 1997, a successful libel action was brought against him by relatives ofBloody Sunday victims for alleging in aSunday Independent article in 1997 that the marchers were "Sinn Féin activists operating for the IRA".[47] Cruise O'Brien opposed the 1998Good Friday Agreement and opposed allowing Sinn Féin into government in Northern Ireland. He wrote that he was "glad to be an ally ... in defence of the Union" with the ReverendIan Paisley, leader of the Free Presbyterian Church and of the Democratic Unionist Party. In 1968 O'Brien had referred to Paisley as a "hate merchant". He also predicted, mistakenly, that Paisley would not enter a power-sharing government with Sinn Féin.[48] O'Brien later resigned from the UKUP after his bookMemoir: My Life and Themes called on Unionists to consider the benefits of aunited Ireland in order to thwart Sinn Féin.[49] In 2005 he rejoined the Irish Labour Party. Cruise O'Brien defended his harsh attitudes and actions towards Irish republicans, saying "We do right to condemn all violence but we have a special duty to condemn the violence which is committed in our name".[50]
Cruise O'Brien's books include:States of Ireland (1972), where he first indicated his revised view of Irish nationalism,The Great Melody (1992), his 'thematic' biography ofEdmund Burke, and his autobiographyMemoir: My Life and Themes (1999). He also published a collection of essays,Passion and Cunning (1988), which includes a substantial piece on the literary work ofW. B. Yeats and some challenging views on the subject of terrorism, andThe Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism (1986), a history ofZionism and the State of Israel. His books, particularly those on Irish issues, tend to be personalised, for exampleStates of Ireland, where he made the link between the political success of the republicanEaster Rising and the consequent demise of hisHome Rule family's position in society. His private papers have been deposited in theUniversity College Dublin Archives.
In 1963, Cruise O'Brien's script for aTelefís Éireann programme[title missing] onCharles Stewart Parnell won him aJacob's Award.[51]
He was a longtime columnist for theIrish Independent. His articles were distinguished by hostility to theNorthern Ireland peace process, regular predictions of civil war involving the Republic of Ireland, and a pro-Unionist stance.[citation needed]
Cruise O'Brien held visiting professorships and lectureships throughout the world, particularly in the United States, and inapartheid South Africa, openly breaking the academic boycott. A persistent critic ofCharles Haughey, Cruise O'Brien coined the acronymGUBU (Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented), based on a statement by Charles Haughey, who was thenTaoiseach, commenting on the discovery of a murder suspect,Malcolm MacArthur, in the apartment of the Fianna FáilAttorney GeneralPatrick Connolly.[52] Until 1994, Cruise O'Brien was a Pro-Chancellor of theUniversity of Dublin.
According toRoy Foster,Colm Tóibín wrote thatSeamus Heaney "was so popular that he could even survive being endorsed by Conor Cruise O'Brien, which normally meant 'the kiss of death' in Ireland.The New Yorker fact-checking desk found out Cruise O'Brien's Dublin phone number and called him to ask if his approval meant the kiss of death in his native country: they then telephoned an astonished Tóibín and reproachfully told him: 'Mr O'Brien said: "No, it didn't".'"[53]
 |
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister for Posts and Telegraphs 1973–1977 | Succeeded by |
| Northern Ireland Forum | ||
| New forum | Regional Member 1996–1998 | Forum dissolved |
