GUBU is dead, long live GUBU!

Grotesque, unbelievevable, bizarre and unprecedented was coined by the late Conor Cruise O’Brien about events involving his nemisis, Charles J Haughey. In some ways the phrase also the sums up the end of his own complicated and very diverse life.

Belfast Gonzo on Slugger says.

Love him or loathe him, the life of Conor Cruise O’Brien is one that had a profound influence on Irish politics – north and south – over the past half century. From his ill-fated UN diplomatic service in the Congo, to becoming a Labour TD and a minister, to his vigorous censorship of Sinn Fein, his journalism and writing, sympathy for Zionism, hatred of Irish republican paramilitarism and Charles Haughey, and even membership of the now-defunct UK Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, his life was as diverse as it was controversial.

The political establishment has paid tribute to his convictions, intellect and commitment to the Irish State. The Irish Times describes him as a master of culture and controversy.

O’Brien’s political career in the Dáil and Seanad was in fact deeply marked by the burgeoning Northern conflict. He had opposed the sacking of the RTÉ authority over an interview with IRA figure Seán Mac Stíofáin, mounting a filibuster in the Dáil which made him the darling of the media.

As minister for posts and telegraphs in the 1973-1977 coalition, he had the controversial task of policing the government ban on Sinn Féin and the IRA in RTÉ, and his 1976 legislation although more precise (and therefore more workable) and more liberal in some respects than its Fianna Fáil predecessor, made him a whipping-boy not only for republicans but for civil libertarians and journalists generally.

Like his mentor, Owen Sheehy Skeffington, he combined strong liberal tendencies with an unremitting hostility to political violence (except, in later years, when it was carried out by Israeli-backed militia against Palestinians) and a profound commitment to the political legitimacy of the Irish State.

I met him on many occasions during his time at the All Party Talks in the run up the Good Friday Agreement here in Belfast. We had one conversation about southern politics which ended abruptly when I refused to agree that the Irish Labour Party and the SDLP were selling out to appease the republican movement. Watching him during the talks was not a pleasent experience. His blinding hatred of Sinn Fein got in the way of compelling argument. Most days Bob McCartney and he looked more like the Statler and Waldorf, the grumpy old men from the muppets, then serious players. At times it was all a bit GUBU, but then politics on this island seems destined to be so.

When Charles Haughey resigned as Taoiseach he famously quoted from Shakespeare’s Othello.

I have done the state some service, and they know’t.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice:

Ironically it seems an equally fitting repose to the Cruiser.

May he rest in peace.