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Sat 12 Dec 2008Distinguished writer and political meteor who illuminated our lives
AS I grew up in the 1940s I became aware of Conor Cruise O'Brien as a most distinguished writer and diplomat. However, I believe that it was not until the late 1950s that we met. In his Foreign Affairs capacity he invited me to dine with a British visitor to Dublin - Norman St John-Stevas, now Baron St John of Fawsley, writes Garret FitzGerald.
At the time his invitation puzzled me. Since 1948, as Irish correspondent of more than a dozen Commonwealth and British newspapers, I had been criticising vigorously the Northern Ireland policy of successive governments which were persistently demanding that Britain transfer sovereignty over Northern Ireland to our State, regardless of the wishes of a majority of its population.
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