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Conor Cruise O'Brien (3 November 1917 – 18 December 2008)〔("Former minister and journalist Conor Cruise O'Brien dies", ''The Irish Times'', 18 December 2008. )〕 often nicknamed "The Cruiser",〔("Conor Cruise O’Brien: farewell to Ireland's restless conscience" ). ''The Telegraph'', 20 December 2008; retrieved 8 July 2009.〕 was an Irish politician, writer, historian and academic. His opinion on the role of Britain in Ireland and in Northern Ireland changed during the 1970s in response to the outbreak of 'the Troubles' after 1968. He saw opposing nationalist and unionist traditions as irreconcilable and switched from a nationalist to a unionist view of Irish politics and history. O'Brien's outlook was always radical and the positions he took were seldom orthodox. He summarised his position as, "I intend to administer an electric shock to the Irish psyche".〔Akenson (1994), p. 364.〕 Internationally, he opposed in person the African National Congress's academic boycott of the apartheid regime in South Africa.〔Akenson (1994), pp. 472–81.〕 These views contrasted with those espoused during the 1950s and 1960s. During his career as a civil servant O'Brien worked on the government's anti-partition campaign. At the 1969 general election, he was elected to Ireland's parliament as a Labour Party TD for Dublin North–East becoming a Minister from 1973–77.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien )〕 He was also the Labour Party's Northern Ireland spokesman during those years. He was later known primarily as an author and as a columnist for the ''Irish Independent''. ==Early life== Cruise O'Brien was born in Dublin to Francis ("Frank") Cruise O'Brien and Kathleen Sheehy. Frank was a journalist with the ''Freeman's Journal'' and ''Irish Independent'' newspapers, and had edited an essay written fifty years earlier by William Lecky, on the influence of the clergy on Irish politics.〔William Lecky, ''Clerical Influences: An essay on Irish sectarianism and English Government'' Edited with an introduction by W. E. G. Lloyd and F. Cruise O’Brien, Maunsel and Company, Dublin, 1911. (originally published as a chapter in ''The Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland'' (1861))〕 Kathleen was an Irish language teacher. She was the daughter of David Sheehy, a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party and organiser of the Irish National Land League. She had two sisters, both of whom lost their husbands in 1916. Hanna's husband, the well known pacifist and supporter of women's suffrage Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, was executed by firing squad on the orders of Captain J.C Bowen Colthurst during the 1916 Easter Rising.〔(Twentieth-Century Witness: Ireland's Fissures, and My Family's, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Atlantic Monthly, Vol.273, No.1, pp. 49-72, January 1994 ); O'Brien (1999), pp. 15–16〕 Soon afterwards Mary's husband, Thomas Kettle, an officer of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers was killed during the Battle of the Somme. These three women, Hanna and his mother in particular, were a major influence on O'Brien's upbringing alongside Hanna's son, his cousin Owen Sheehy-Skeffington.〔(Personal File Two Deaths in Rathmines, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 83, No.6, pp. 44–49, June 1999 )〕 O'Brien's father (who died in 1927) wanted Conor educated non-denominationally, a wish that Kathleen honoured. O'Brien followed his cousin Owen into Sandford Park School that had a predominantly Protestant ethos,〔(Conor Cruise O'Brien – Obituary by Brian Fallon ), The Guardian, London, 19 December 2008〕 despite objections from Catholic clergy.〔(O'Brien, Conor Cruise, "Two Deaths in Rathmines", ''The Atlantic'', June 1999 )〕 O'Brien subsequently attended Trinity College Dublin which played the British national anthem until 1939, though O'Brien and Sheehy-Skeffington sat in protest on such occasions.〔Meehan (2009)〕 O'Brien was editor of Trinity's weekly, ''TCD: A College Miscellany''. His first wife, Christine Foster, came from a Belfast Presbyterian family and was, like her father, a member of the Gaelic League. Her parents, Alexander (Alec) Roulston Foster and Mary Lynd, were Irish republicans and supporters of Irish reunification. Alec Foster was headmaster at the time of Belfast Royal Academy and was later a founding member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and also a strong supporter of the Irish Anti-Apartheid movement.〔(Breandán Mac Suibhne, The Lion and the Haunted House, Dublin Review of Books )〕 He was a former Ulster, Ireland and British & Irish Lions rugby player, having captained Ireland three times between 1912–1914. O'Brien and Christine Foster were married in a registry office in 1939. The couple had three children – Donal, Fedelma, and Kathleen (Kate), who died in 1998. The marriage ended in divorce after 20 years. In 1962, O'Brien married the Irish-language writer and poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi in a Roman Catholic church. O'Brien's divorce, contrary to Roman Catholic teaching, was not an issue since that church did not recognise the validity of O'Brien's 1939 civil wedding in the first place. O'Brien referred to this action, which in effect formally de-recognised the legitimacy of his former wife and children, as "hypocritical ... and otherwise distasteful, but I took it, as preferable to the alternatives."〔O'Brien (1999), p. 267.〕 Mac an tSaoi was five years his junior, and the daughter of Seán MacEntee, who was Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) at the time. They subsequently adopted two Congolese children, a son (Patrick) and a daughter (Margaret). O'Brien's university education led to a career in the public service, most notably in the Department of External (now Foreign) Affairs. He achieved distinction as managing director of the state run Irish News Agency and later as part of the fledgling Irish delegation to the United Nations. O'Brien later claimed he was something of an anomalous iconoclast in post-1922 Irish politics, particularly in the context of Fianna Fáil governments under Éamon de Valera. He considered that those who did not conform to traditional Roman Catholic mores were generally ill-suited to the public service,〔O'Brien (1999), p. 95.〕 though that does not appear to have impeded his ascent through it that ended officially at ambassadorial level. He observed, In the Department of External Affairs during the 1949–52 inter-party government, O'Brien served under former IRA Chief of Staff republican, Seán MacBride, the 1974 Nobel Peace Laureate, son of John MacBride and Maud Gonne. O'Brien was particularly vocal in opposition to partition during the 1940s and 1950s, as part of his official duties. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Conor Cruise O'Brien」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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