Intellectual giant who turned into a political pygmy

BY any standards, the contribution to political life in Ireland over many decades by the late Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien has been both enormous and controversial.

In acknowledging his many and varied talents and the passionate manner in which he approached his subject, Dr O’Brien nonetheless failed to define the Northern conflict as a political problem, preferring to regard it as a law and order issue which in turn resulted in the introduction of some of the most repressive legislation in western Europe.

The period of the 1973-’77 Cosgrave coalition government saw the emergence of the ‘Heavy Gang’. These were gardaí who specialised in the extraction of confessions amid claims of ill-treatment while in garda custody. Dr O’Brien was made aware of these allegations yet decided to ignore them.