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 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, and The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism (1989), a 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.
In 1963, O'Brien's script for a Telefís Éireann programme on Charles Stewart Parnell won him a Jacob's Award.
He was a longtime columnist for the Irish Independent and his articles were distinguished by hostility to the 'peace process' in Northern Ireland, regular predictions of civil war in the Republic of Ireland and a pro-Unionist stance. In 1997, a successful 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".
Between 1979 and 1981 O'Brien was editor-in-chief of The Observer newspaper in Britain. Shortly after starting as editor he sent a memo to Mary Holland, the Observer's Northern Ireland correspondent, whose coverage had won her the Journalist of the Year award:
| “ | 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. | ” |
Holland subsequently left the Observer and joined the Irish Times as the Northern Ireland correspondent.
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, Malcolm MacArthur, in the apartment of the Fianna Fáil Attorney General Patrick Connolly. Until 1994, O'Brien was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dublin.
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Famous quotes containing the word writings:
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—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Accursed who brings to light of day
The writings I have cast away.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
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