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Tributes to Conor Cruise O'Brien

Friday, 19 December 2008 22:25

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore have led tributes to the former Cabinet minister Conor Cruise O'Brien, who has died at the age of 91.

Mr Cowen said he was a man of strong convictions.

Mr Gilmore praised a man whom he described as an intellectual giant and one of the most remarkable Irish public figures of the 20th century.

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Mr Cruise O'Brien was a civil servant, a politician, a UN official, a writer, an academic and a newspaper editor.

Born in November 1917, at the age of 25 he joined the civil service and later became a delegate to the UN Assembly.

In 1969 he was elected to the Dáil as a member of the Labour party and was appointed Minister for Posts and Telegraphs in 1973.

In 1976, his Broadcasting Act retained Section 31, which banned proscribed organisations from the airwaves. He lost his seat in 1977.

Between 1979 and 1981 he was editor-in-chief of The Observer newspaper in Britain.

He also worked as a long time columnist for the Sunday Independent.

One of his later political roles was in 1996 when he joined Robert McCartney's small UK Unionist Party.

He was one of three UKUP members including Mr McCartney who were elected to the Northern Ireland Forum for political dialogue in the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement.

However, 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.

He then rejoined the Labour party in Dublin and was a member until the time of his death.