Conor Cruise O' Brien

I hope to write something on Conor Cruise O'Brien, who was a well known writer, playwright, lecturer and politican in Ireland. He died some years ago. He was an unusual man who did not fit into the Ireland of De Valera that he grew up in. He was born in 1917. His father was a journalist and his mother was one of the Sheehy family who were well known Home Ruler politicans. His father died when he was a child, and had wanted him to go to a Protestant school, as he himself was an agnostic. Conor was sent to a Protestant school and grew up to be sceptical about religion and to question the heavy depressing Catholic ethos of the Irish state. He next went to Trinity College and then into the Irish civil service where he looked like he was going to have a brilliant career. I will write some more about him later.