Conor Cruise O’Brien caused ‘cultural transformation’ in Ireland, symposium hears
Politician, writer and diplomat discussed on centenary of his birth
Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien: minister in the 1973-1977 coalition government, an editor-in-chief of the ‘Observer’ in the 1980s and an elected unionist politician in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Politician, diplomat, journalist, historian, public intellectual and contrarian: the long life and many works of Conor Cruise O’Brien were discussed in Trinity College Dublin on Friday during the second day of a symposium held to mark the centenary of his birth.
A minister in the 1973 -1977 coalition government, an editor-in-chief of the Observer newspaper in the 1980s and an elected unionist politician in Northern Ireland in the 1990s, O’Brien was also arguably the most influential voice in the revisionist movement which arose during the Troubles to challenge hitherto accepted narratives of Irish nationalism.