Cruise O’Brien blamed for RTÉ’s ‘red problems’

FORMER minister Conor Cruise O’Brien’s forthright style saw him accused of many things during his long and distinguished career but few would have blamed him of facilitating communist infiltration in RTÉ.

However, this was the accusation contained in a letter sent to Taoiseach Jack Lynch in early 1978.

Writing on March 20, 1978, Joseph O’Reilly of Achill Island, Co Galway, wrote that he wished “to draw [the taoiseach’s] attention to the news coverage by RTÉ particularly on television, of the French elections”.