One of the great liberal voices of the last century has been silenced. Irish man of letters and political adventurer Conor Cruise O'Brien is dead at the age of 91. I fondly read a lot of O'Brien's fine political and literary criticism back in 80's and 90's. He was a profoundly independent mind, something that served him very well as a writer but not so well as a diplomat. The Guardian's obituary summarizes that story.
O'Brien was an implacable enemy of political terror of any kind, and was contemptuous of anyone who believed that some fashionable cause excused it. This contempt extended all the way back to Thomas Jefferson. His criticism of Jefferson went too far. It is one thing to say that Jefferson committed both moral and political errors in excusing the terror in France, and another thing to say that Jefferson had genuine terrorist sympathies. But the first thing is worth saying. It took real courage for a Irish liberal to take the IRA and South African revolutionaries alike to task for terrorism. He had that.
He was also, I might add, a writer of pure and precise English. His academic histories (his book on Parnell is my favorite) are a delight to read, even if your mother's maiden name isn't Daughterty.
O'Brien was an implacable enemy of political terror of any kind, and was contemptuous of anyone who believed that some fashionable cause excused it. This contempt extended all the way back to Thomas Jefferson. His criticism of Jefferson went too far. It is one thing to say that Jefferson committed both moral and political errors in excusing the terror in France, and another thing to say that Jefferson had genuine terrorist sympathies. But the first thing is worth saying. It took real courage for a Irish liberal to take the IRA and South African revolutionaries alike to task for terrorism. He had that.
He was also, I might add, a writer of pure and precise English. His academic histories (his book on Parnell is my favorite) are a delight to read, even if your mother's maiden name isn't Daughterty.
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