O’Brien, Conor Cruise (1917-2008), an Irish diplomat and writer, served in Seanad Éireann (the upper house of Ireland’s Parliament) from 1977 to 1979. He was a member of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of Ireland’s Parliament) from 1969 to 1977, where he served as minister of posts and telegraphs from 1973 to 1977.
O’Brien was born in Dublin on Nov. 3, 1917, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He served in Ireland’s Department for External Affairs and, in 1961, was the representative of the United Nations secretary general in Katanga, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1962, O’Brien wrote To Katanga and Back, an account of his experiences in Africa. From 1979 to 1981, he served as editor in chief of The Observer, a London newspaper. He wrote many articles and several other books, including A Concise History of Ireland (1972) with his second wife, Máire MacEntee O’Brien; and The Siege: The Story of Israel and Zionism (1986). O’Brien died on Dec. 18, 2008.
