The news of Deep Throat’s death will collect many headlines today but there is another interesting name in the obituaries. Conor Cruise O’Brien, an Irish diplomat, government minister, author and newspaper editor, has also died. He was 91.
O’Brien became famous when he served as a senior United Nations diplomat seeking a solution to civil war in the Congo in 1961. He resigned after clashing with his UN bosses and wrote To Katanga and Back – a classic expose of bureaucracy.
In Ireland, he opposed the modern incarnation of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and frequently wrote that the Republic of Ireland must abandon its support for the IRA. In 1972, he wrote States of Ireland – a key work on 20th century Ireland.
