Conor Cruise O'Brien

He was a former Ulster, Ireland and British & Irish Lions rugby player, having captained Ireland three times between 1912 and 1914.

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.

Soon afterwards Mary's husband, Thomas Kettle, an officer of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the First World War, was killed during the Battle of the Somme.

These women, Hanna and Kathleen in particular, were a major influence on Cruise O'Brien's upbringing, alongside Hanna's son, Owen Sheehy-Skeffington.

Donal Conor David Dermot Donat Cruise O'Brien (3 November 1917 – 18 December 2008 ), often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish diplomat, politician, writer, historian and academic, who served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1973 to 1977, a Senator for Dublin University from 1977 to 1979, a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-East constituency from 1969 to 1977, and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from January 1973 to March 1973.

His opinion of Britain's role in Ireland subsequent to the partition of the island and the independence of the Free State in 1921 changed during the 1970s, in response to the outbreak of The Troubles.

He now saw opposing nationalist and unionist traditions as irreconcilable, and switched from a nationalist to a unionist view of Irish politics and history, and from opposition to support for partition.

Cruise O'Brien's outlook was radical and seldom orthodox.

He summarised his position as intending "to administer an electric shock to the Irish psyche".

Internationally, though a long-standing member of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, he opposed in person the African National Congress's academic boycott of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Cruise O'Brien's father died in 1927.

He wanted Conor educated, like Conor's cousin Owen, in Sandford Park School that had a predominantly Protestant ethos, a wish Kathleen honoured.

despite objections from Catholic clergy.

Cruise O'Brien was elected a scholar in Modern Languages at Trinity in 1937 and was editor of Trinity's weekly, TCD: A College Miscellany.

His first wife, Christine Foster, from a Belfast Presbyterian family, was, like her father, a member of the Gaelic League.

Her parents, Alexander (Alec) Roulston Foster and Anne (Annie) Lynd, were, in Cruise O'Brien's description, "Home Rulers; a very advanced position for any Protestants in the period".

Alec Foster was at the time headmaster of Belfast Royal Academy; he was later a founding member of the Wolfe Tone Society, and was a strong supporter of the Irish Anti-Apartheid movement.

Cruise O'Brien subsequently attended Trinity College Dublin, which played the British national anthem until 1939.

While others stood, he and Sheehy-Skeffington sat in protest on such occasions.

Cruise O'Brien and Christine Foster were married in a registry office in 1939.

Cruise O'Brien's divorce, though contrary to Roman Catholic teaching, was not an issue because that church did not recognise the validity of his 1939 civil wedding.

He referred to this action, which in effect formally de-recognised the legitimacy of his former wife and their children, as "hypocritical … and otherwise distasteful, but I took it, as preferable to the alternatives".

Mac an tSaoi was five years his junior, and the daughter of Seán MacEntee, who was Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) at the time.

The couple subsequently adopted two children of Irish-African parentage, a son (Patrick) and a daughter (Margaret).

Cruise O'Brien's university education led to a career in the public service, most notably in the Department of External Affairs.

During his 1945–61 career as a civil servant, Cruise O'Brien promoted the government's anti-partition campaign.

In the 1960s he was associated with the 'New Left' and opposition to US military involvement in Viet Nam.

In 1962, Cruise O'Brien married the Irish-language writer and poet Máire Mhac an tSaoi in a Roman Catholic church.

At the 1969 general election he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Labour Party TD for Dublin North-East.

Views that he espoused during and after the 1970s contrasted with those he articulated during the 1950s and 1960s.

He served as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, with responsibility for broadcasting, between 1973 and 1977 in a coalition government.

During those years he was also the Labour Party's Northern Ireland spokesman.

Cruise O'Brien was later known primarily as an author and as an Irish Independent and Sunday Independent columnist.

Conor Cruise O'Brien was born at 44 Leinster Road, Rathmines, Dublin, to Francis ("Frank") Cruise O'Brien and the former Kathleen Sheehy.

Frank was a journalist with the Freeman's Journal and Irish Independent newspapers, and had edited an essay written 50 years earlier by William Lecky concerning the influence of the clergy on Irish politics.

Kathleen was a teacher of the Irish language.

She was the daughter of David Sheehy, a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party and organiser of the Irish National Land League.

She had three sisters, Hanna, Margaret and Mary.

The couple had three children: Donal, Fedelma, and Kathleen (Kate), who died in 1998.

The marriage ended in divorce after 20 years.