TRIBUTES:PRESIDENT MARY McAleese has paid tribute to "the immense breadth and longevity" of the career of Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien, who died on Thursday aged 91 years.
Conveying her condolences to Máire Mhac an tSaoi on the death of her husband, President McAleese said she wanted to acknowledge “the immense breadth and longevity of Dr Cruise O’Brien’s career as a public servant, politician, writer and academic which was widely recognised both at home and abroad”.
Dr Cruise O’Brien had made “a remarkable contribution to Irish life over many decades”, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said in a tribute yesterday.
Expressing his sadness, Mr Martin continued: “He was a scholar and writer of international distinction, an outstanding diplomat in the service both of Ireland and of the United Nations, and a robust and highly influential participant in the politics of our island. He was a man of undoubted courage and brilliance.
“I would express my deepest condolences to his wife Máire Mhac an tSaoi, another former officer of my department, to his sons and daughters and other family members.”
Former taoiseach John Bruton, who now heads the European Commission delegation in Washington, said he had learned with “immense sadness” of Dr Cruise O’Brien’s death.
“Conor was one of the outstanding international diplomats, writers and historians of his generation. His clarity and depth of thought and of expression were without equal.
“He had remarkable moral courage born of deep reflection on the issues he addressed. His writing helped the people of varying heritage, who live in Ireland, to come to a better understanding of their history and of who they really are.
“This made a vital contribution to enabling all the people of Ireland to live in greater harmony with one another now, than at any time since the 16th century.
“It was my privilege to serve with him in the government of Liam Cosgrave between 1973 and 1977. During that time, I witnessed the immense courage he and other members of that government displayed in confronting political lawlessness, and the errors that spawned it.
“In more recent times, I have got to know both his wife Máire and himself on a personal as well as political basis. They were a devoted couple and I realise how much Máire will miss him now. To her and to his family, I extend heartfelt sympathy,” Mr Bruton said.
Interviewed on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, former taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald said of his former cabinet colleague: “He was an outstanding intellectual of international repute. He was both a historian, especially of late 19th-century Irish history, and a literary critic.
“But he was no ivory tower intellectual. He was willing, indeed enthusiastic, to involve himself in practical affairs, in diplomacy and politics and journalism, and that carries risks, I suppose, for any intellectual.”
Describing Dr Cruise O’Brien as “a remarkable man by any standards”, Dr FitzGerald added: “Not to have told the truth, as he saw it, to those people who didn’t want to hear it was for him a betrayal of democracy.”
In a tribute issued on Thursday evening, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said Dr Cruise O’Brien was “a leading figure in Irish life in many spheres” who had been “blessed with a strong intellect” and was “a man of strong convictions”.
Continuing, Mr Cowen said: “His political views were not always in accordance with those of my own party over the years but I never doubted his sincerity or his commitment to a better and more peaceful Ireland.”
Also paying warm tribute on Thursday, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore noted that Dr Cruise O’Brien was a member of the party up until his death.
“He showed particular courage in confronting traditional attitudes towards Northern Ireland during the 1960s and 1970s and was, in many respects, ahead of his time in this area.
“Although threatened on many occasions during his career as a Labour Party minister in the coalition government of the 1970s, he never shirked from challenging and taking on the nationalist paramilitaries.”
Stephen Collins: page 15; Garret FitzGerald: page 16; Editorial comment: page 17
