O’Brien was a man of too devouring an intellectual appetite to be sated by a single profession: he was an author, journalist, academic, diplomat and politician, and wherever “the Cruiser�?went, he made waves.

That is, perhaps, why one could still sense the faint shiver of wariness in some of the political tributes offered to him last week: Conor himself would have detected and relished it. Brian Cowen, the Irish Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fail, said: “Conor Cruise O’Brien was blessed with a strong intellect, and he was a man of strong convictions.�?

Both assertions are undeniably true, but they left something unsaid, something necessary to say: that O’Brien was a great man. The word “great�?is flung around rather easily nowadays, in the sense of “notable�? In its fullest meaning, however, I would argue that it applies to someone who combines intellectual brilliance with moral courage: Conor possessed both in abundance.