Conversations with History: Conor Cruise O'Brien

[33guyfawkes]

conor cruise o brien was an asshole! i am glad he died!

[vygotsky17]

I'm happy to say after my vote the dislikes are now in the majority!!!

[MCDG1]

Simply put, CCOB is a racist, a primitive racist who only ever respected power, nothing more... A sick, self-hating 'Irishman' who had no respect for democracy, free-speech or justice and who supported Apartheid-era South Africa, Zionist, Unionism, U.S. foreign policy during the cold-war and any other power-driven, discrimatory ideology he could find. Yet he had a way with words, a clever employment of popular or established ideas and concepts and an effective use of straw-man arguemtents ...

[demantos666]

What a vile old west brit cunt.

[badslabber]

what a horrible little man !

[CharlesDickens99]

What happened to him to turn him into such a Unionist?

[CharlesDickens99]

Strange they didn't mention Thomas Paine and his famous rebuke to Edmund Burke.

[chisterland]

***IRELAND: UNITED AND REPUBLICAN.

[mickmack333]

Nice English accent. What a West Brit prick.

[RebelAvenger6]

He was succesfully sued by the victims of Bloody Sunday for calling them Terrorists,what a bastard.

[Xenoglossicist]

The thought pollution people like CCB inflict(ed) on Ireland and the world would have you have believe that there is a world where education equals virtue, where speaking vitriolically, yet politely, is virtuous. I despise people who think they're entitled to speak for nations, while they demean other people as being unworthy of determining their own course. His stance on apartheid refers. To hell or to Connaught CCB...

[ScienceRks]

He is still reviled by a huge section of the Irish people..rightly so.

[Totalwarlord666]

Great to see so many anti CCOB comments restores my faith in human nature,there is justice in karma.

[RebelAvenger6]

I agree abe his writings were pretty trite and uninspiring...keep up the old bile folks..!

[ABEABE4evr]

Totaly over rated as a writer, a banal plagiarist.

[Tonyo1221]

Old Fool. He was hillariously inconsistent.

A Unionist for years, then he dramitically became a Nationalist preching for a United Ireland.

This man made zero contribution. A laughing stock in Ireland, north and south.

[britbasherno1]

He accused the Bloody Sunday victims of being "armed terrorists who got what they deserved".A treacherous bastard of the first magnitude..

[Logicopositivi]

@britbasherno1 He was successfully sued for libel because of that remark thankfully.

[britbasherno1]

@padraic2001eire Have you got the Gay hots for O Brien,your defence of him sickingly sycophantic,do you jerk off to his videos.?

[padraic2001eire]

@britbasherno1 I'm more Irish than you'll ever be.

[TomBarry192I]

He will not be missed. He was a disgrace to the Irish nation.

[kelticuss1]

A total bastard,no redeeming features at all...

[ABE4evr]

Even the Unionists seen that the only loyalty he had was to his own pumped up massive ego,and got rid of him,a real looser north and south.

[mosuilleabhain]

To OnTheOtherHand1: I saw all the shit in the North unfold during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and I think, at your age, you're a bit wet behind the ears to pontificate to the rest of us. He banned the voices of those from Sinn Fein yet we had to listen to the secterian, bullish, bile riddled hatred of Paisley and his ilk year after year. And he turned a convenient "blind eye" to the Garda "Heavy Gang", another shower of bastards. If you're so fond of unionism, one way tickets are cheap!

[WastedTourist]

O'Brien for all his intellect and his prestige, will unfortunately be remembered for attempting the unachievable task of justifying and defending Unionism and Britain's conduct in Ireland.

[Galgamax2]

amen!

[daz315]

hardly retarded, that being the notion of nationalism

[timpatjoe]

@OnTheOtherHand1  stop reading the sunday indo!!

[bouse23]

cruise o brien was an enormously intelligent man he understood unionists better than most but he should never have introduced section 31 it was undemocratic and like all censorship an insult to peoples intelligence i think his anti nationalism touched on treason at times

[garmla]

conor cruise o'brien was a stain on the irish nation

[suburbansuperstar]

Our greatest public intellectual, he was crushed by his envy of and spite towards John Hume. Better I think to be an agent provaocateur than a tedious culchie patriot.

[oxfordeddie]

An interesting statesman who offered a rare voice which reached out to non-Catholic Irish who were frightened by an almost totalitarian anti-British and ant-unionist clerical Republic.

Judging by some of the messages on this forum, not much has changed in "modern Ireland". I'm glad I left!!!

[Seamus616]

You need to listen to the other side two lads. He shaped modern Ireland in that... Even when it hurts, we must think rationally and question all aspects of our society. He fails to mention the Irish nationalist majoritys who were in Fermanagh, Tyrone who were forced into the Northern State

[WalterSobchak1985]

Wow that was some damn fine ego fellation at the beginning there, I actually fell asleep for about ten minutes, woke up, boiled an egg and when I came back Cruiser was still just sitting there waiting to fuckin speak

[GuyAwoke]

Darn, it's evident he stirs up a lot of negative emotion. Regarding censorship....he was cutting off the media outlet of the political wing of what was regarded worldwide as a terrorist organisation. Personally I don't think that was a good idea but remember this wasn't a knitting circle he was dealing with, it was a bunch of people with lots of guns who didn't recognise the legitimacy and were prepared to kill members of the Irish defence forces, whatever your views on their cause are.

[burlearth]

not only did he try to crush the opinion of "terrorists" but he crushed those who believed in the right to free speech but had opinions in opposition to the "terrorists". Cruise had some great ideals -as do we all- but they were wholly intellectual and his execution of his opinions were elitist and fascist. At the end of his days he more or less became a caricature of his contrarian stance to the so called "majority opinion" of Ireland.

[GuyAwoke]

Yeah I dunno. He was probably someone who saw so far into the future that he had no time for negotiating his way around what he saw as petty obstacles but were real issues of the day. It's like he had a big picture that no one ever really got, that Ireland couldn't remain an isolationist pseudo theocracy and still hope to compete in the world market on any real level. More of an idealist with policies than a politician with ideas. In the end though I think he had the imagination many lacked.

[culchie22]

id love to do a big steamy shit on hes grave

[zazext]

We just have to listen what old people are tryin to say to us sometimes :)

[zazext]

I think I have started to believe to the worlds this old and mature enough guy and I think we have to listen to his words :) i think i have started to believe in .... GOD actually :)

[burlearth]

He was once sued for libel by relatives of those murdered by the British army on Bloody Sunday for claiming that those killed were actually "operating for the IRA".

Whatever good points he had, can be cancelled by the bad, that's the real unblack & white picture.

[burlearth]

Most infamous for his 1970's stint as Minister for Post and Telegraphs in the government of the 26 counties, he introduced legislation to censor broadcasts of Republican views. His laws meant that members of Sinn Fein could not be seen or heard on Irish airwaves in any context, discussing any subject. Finding resistance among RTE journalists, he oversaw the sacking of the entire board of the state broadcaster.

He then tried to hand over RTE's second television channel to the BBC.

[foneill9]

burleath - I don't remember that....He was Minister for P&T until he lost his seat in 1977, but we didn't even have a second channel until much later (not even a 2nd radio channel until 1979; remember RTE2 "cumminatcha" ). Why would anyone even want to do something as nonsensical as that? As someone who left school in '77, I believed that he never really put any effort into updating our 3rd world phone system at that time. Maybe he saw it as a demotion..

[burlearth]

When RTE 2 was in the proposition stage, he attempted to hand it over to the BBC cos he believed the competition of a British home channel would cause the Irish "culture" to grow stronger. The problem with Cruise is that while his ideals of tolerance of others are to be admired especially at a time when there wasn't much around, he wasn't very tolerant of opinions other than his own. Plus joining the Unionists just to piss Republicans off is childish and he was no spring chicken when he did it.

[burlearth]

Nothern Ireland was far, far from a democracy at the time O'Brien was growing up. Most ordinary working class people both Catholics & Protestants didn't have a vote and lived in terrible conditions. So the elections only benefitted the ruling class because they were the only ones who could vote.

[HotSummerof1976]

He is forgotten about already,surely thats real justice..

[ebeneezzer]

Censoring, Irish hating, bullying old cunt.

On his orders the coffin of hunger striker Frank Stagg was snatched and buried under 16 feet of concrete. He was also responsible for destroying RTE by firing anyone who held the wrong opinions and replaced them with talentless fucks like Brendan O'Connor and Pat Kenny who held the correct west-brit opinions.

Burn in hell you disgusting old fuck

[IEDvictory]

Even the Unionists got sick of him and kicked him out..

[liveingalway]

What a wonderful man. A writer, playwright,historian and diplomat. O'Brien was among one of the truly great public intellectuals of the 20th century. It's a shame to see him go, Ireland has lost one of our greatest patriots. Bis vivit qui bene vivit.

[shaymultimedia]

Many of the hate comments here are reminiscent of a Sylvestor Stallone movie: the plot is good versus evil, its either black or white no grey areas. Real life is a little more complicated. O'Brien was indeed a provocatuer, no question about that, but one cannot say that he lacked courage. For those who accuse him of treason, CCOB did rail against British nationalism and colonialism at the UN. CCOB would concur with Doctor Johnson's line "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." RIP

[modesthorse]

The vatican annulled his first marriage because the relationship was never consummated.

Why has this been airbrushed from history?!

[burlearth]

because it's not that important as religion is a sham anyway.

[mosuilleabhain]

Guedingen: Thank Christ we'll never see his likes again. As for your comment about pathetic fuckers, that's really the kettle calling the pot's arse black!! Yours is basically the only pathetic input here and I'd rather staple my head to a revolving door than read any of the shit produced by that bastard. Rather dismal attendance at the removal, did you not think?  What does that tell you?

[DARAHMAN666]

TRAITOR.............

[HotSummerof1976]

He was an old fool..

[larrycake1981]

nasty piece of work. revisionist, censor and imperialist and zionist apologist. He represented All thats repulsive about west Brit post colonial attitude.

[DARAHMAN666]

Go and kiss the Queens arse, Loyalist bastard..

[mosuilleabhain]

To thedarkarse: You comment is somewhat baffling. I might suggest that you take some time out to consider the bigger picture and there is one. I'm sure that, like some of the other comments here, you find mine "odd". So be it, we agree to differ - such is democracy. We need not necessarily agree but a so called Irishman who openly consorts with unionists is reprehensible beyond comparison - he was no patriot. I love my country, HE DID NOT.

[thedarkarse]

I always kind of doubted his contention that Irish nationalists/ republicans/ "patriots" were a bit odd .. the comments here suggest he was right all along (sigh)

[cultictwalette]

For the "patriotic" commentators:

'What constitutes the charm of this country, apart of course from its scant population, and this without the help of the meanest contraception, is that all is derelict, with the sole exception of historys ancient faeces. These are ardently sought after, stuffed and carried in procession. Wherever nauseated time has dropped a nice fat turd you will find our patriots, sniffing it up on all fours, their faces on fire. Elysium of the roofless. Sam Beckett

[princebonniecharlie]

Was he a murderer or maybe a child killer/ kiddie fiddler? Whats wrong with this guy? Let him RIP.

[britbasherno1]

Rejoice! Rejoice ! the arch traitor is dead..what an Xmas present this is, Thatcher next we pray.Off to the pub to celebrate !!! lmao !!

[oliversinhell]

I am really heartened to see so many patriots here this morning ! the man was pure scum , took money from loyalists , same people who slaughtered his fellow countrymen , and all the while leeching his pensions from the irish public !!! he also advocated the use of torture in his book ! so long you fucking scumbag ! tell billy wright we said hello !!!!!

[britbasherno1]

Well said..bravo !

[DARAHMAN666]

Fucking treacherous bastard may he burn in hell...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mosuilleabhain]

To johngill: Why should I be ashamed? Would you wish to debate the matter? Any "Irishman" who allies himself to unionism is a TRAITOR - that is fact, my friend.

[mosuilleabhain]

The death penalty for treason has finally been imposed. Good riddance. May the fires of hell roast you for an eternity and beyond.

[johngill]

be ashamed of yourself

[georgiecasey]

traitor? lolz

[zzzaaa0990]

the biggest traitor to Ireland ever,pur scum and vermin.

[ConorC96]

my name is related to his.