Neighbours: Four lectures
About this book
As a writer and politician, Conor Cruise O'Brien has been acclaimed for wit, candour and courage. And courage above all he has needed in the face of Irish political violence. He displays these qualities once again in this series of lectures on various aspects of British-lrish relations. The lectures are dedicated to the memory of Christopher Ewart-Biggs. the British Ambassador to Ireland, killed by I.R.A. terrorists in 1976. They are also dedicated to 'all the thousands of victims of political violence arising from this dispute in and over Irish and British people, Protestants, Catholics, agnostics-men, women and children'.Dr O'Brien's far-ranging analysis leads to painfully blunt conclusions. How to escape from the world of 'the possessed', from the 'dark and atavistic forces' represented by the terrorists? Salvation does not lie with the British Government, nor with the Government of the Republic, let alone with sympathizers in America. It lies with the people of the North, Catholic and Protestant. They must seize their chance and work out ways of living together in peace. The alternative is civil war and catastrophe.Ruthless in exposing humbug, rich in compassion, these lectures contain the political credo of one of the most distinguished Irishmen of today.