Legacy of Conor Cruise O’Brien examined at Trinity public lecture and symposium
Posted on: 02 November 2017
Conor Cruise O’Brien was a great contrarian who liked to take on unpopular causes, according to historian Roy Foster who was among speakers at two events organised by Trinity College Dublin to mark the centenary of O’Brien’s birth this week.
President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins was among attendees at a two-day academic symposium in Trinity which considered O'Brien's contribution to Irish and world affairs. One of Ireland’s leading public intellectuals of the past half-century, O'Brien made his mark at home and on the world stage in the arenas of diplomacy, politics, journalism and historiography.
You can listen to a podcast from the symposium below:
At the symposium, Roy Foster, Emeritus Professor of Irish History, University of Oxford, and Professor of Irish History and Literature, Queen Mary University of London delivered a paper entitled ‘The Parnellism of Conor Cruise O’Brien’.
“Conor Cruise O’Brien was known as a great contrarian, who liked to goad sacred cows, interrogate accepted pieties, and take on unpopular causes. Besides being a powerful polemicist, a passionate politician, and an undiplomatic diplomat, he was an influential historian, a mordant political analyst, and a writer of supreme force and elegance in genres such as literary criticism and drama. The centenary of his birth requires proper recognition, and it is fitting that his alma mater Trinity College is hosting a symposium which will address his contribution across a wide intellectual arena, as well as the enduring mark he made upon Irish public life. No man deserves it more.”
Other speakers at the symposium included Paul Bew, Professor of Irish Politics, Queens University, Belfast; Susan Dunn, Professor of History at Williams College, Massachusetts; and David Rieff, New York Institute for the Humanities. Journalists Stephen Collins, Eoghan Harris, Susan McKay, Dennis Kennedy and Deaglún de Bréadún also addressed the conference as did Noel Dorr, former secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Brendan Halligan, former general secretary of the Labour Party, TD and MEP.
Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, added: “Conor Cruise O'Brien was a Trinity graduate, a Trinity doctoral student, a Trinity senator and a pro-chancellor. He was Ireland’s leading public intellectual of the later 20th Century, and of course controversial with it. Personally, because of my great interest in Edmund Burke, I'm particularly drawn to O'Brien's ground-breaking study, The Great Melody.”
A public discussion in the Edmund Burke Theatre on Thursday evening considered what common themes can be drawn from a life that combined the drama and tragedy of UN diplomacy, the penning of startling and controversial literary criticism, the rough and tumble of Irish politics, and the creation of ground-breaking studies of Parnell and Burke. O'Brien's views on nationalism, religious intolerance, and authoritarianism and how they might inform our outlook in the age of Brexit and Trump was also be explored. Both events were organised by the School of Histories and Humanities in association with the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute.
The event was opened by Mary Robinson, University Chancellor and former President of Ireland, and also featured a presentation from Frank Callanan, Senior Counsel and author, entitled 'Conor Cruise O'Brien: a centennial appraisal'. Patrick Geoghegan, Trinity’s Professor in Modern History and presenter of Talking History (Newstalk), will chair a round table discussion with David Bromwich, Sterling Professor of English, Yale; Dr Margaret O'Callaghan, Queens University, Belfast; and Ruairi Quinn, former Labour Party minister and TD.
*Photo on main page: Conor Cruise O'Brien presenting nomination for 1969 election